Clash of the Elements Part 1: A Flame Reborn
by mewmaster93
Summary: Mario has found himself wrapped up in a quest to bring about the rebirth of the Elemental Overlord. With many allies both new and old, Mario will soon see himself being wrapped up in the mysteries of his planets that he never once knew existed.
1. Chapter 1

_**"Gods are powerful beings. They can have a multitude of strange and mystifying powers. They could use these powers as keepers of the peace, or become creatures of rampant destruction..."**_

_**"Sometimes though, even the gods will find themselves challenged by the demons of hell..."**_

_**In the distant past, there was once a great war fought by the herald of Heaven, the Elemental Overlord, and a enigmatic being that is named by many as the "Dark King". Their armies of demons and angels fought a great war to control the balance of light and darkness...The minions fought in the reaches of space, but the two titans had to fight their battle on a lone, lifeless planet...**_

"GRAAAAH!" A loud and demonic voice screams in agony. The voice comes from a shadowy yet beastly looking figure, whose body appears to have been scarred deeply, with a pure black stream of blood flowing out of his hulking body. He finds it hard to stand on his beastly legs, and starts to wobble over. Clad in armor that could be described as been crafted by the heavens themselves is a middle aged man, who stands on the rocky structure of the planet with blade in hand. The beast stares at his holy foe, anger being the only emotion on his mind as he looks at him. He gathers enough energy to stand on his feet again, and growls at the man. "Why do you stand before me, Overlord?"

The warrior frowns, and points his sword at the beast. "I will not answer your question, for you already know the answer." The man says in a calm tone. He then quickly slashes his blade across the ground, sending a wave of light energy across the ground in an attempt to trip up his weak legged foe. The beast surprises the warrior by lifting his massive body off the ground and flying into the air to avoid the light wave. As the light travels below him, it leaves behind a road of energy on the ground. The warrior then swings his sword upward to cause the light road to fire a rain of light energy streams at the beast. The beast flies to the left to avoid the attack. Once he notices that his opponent is off-guard for this brief period of time, he opens his mouth. Two tentacles burst out from his back and move towards the sides of his jaw, their tips gathering dark energy from the depths of space above them to form a sphere of darkness in front of his mouth.

When the orb is around the size of his mouth, the beast inhales the energy into himself and fires it back out in the form of a massive beam of red and black energy. The warrior lifts his sword up to defend against the beam. This scene is frozen in the tablets of history, which is currently in the hands of a short old man with swirly glasses, a white lab coat, and a little bundle of grey hairs on his head that is shaped into the shape of an ice cream swirl. He is reading the contents of this tablet to a medium sized Italian man who is wearing a red shirt and blue overalls, a red hat with a red "M" imprinted on a white circle in the front, and two white gloves. He has blue eyes, a thick and wavy black mustache, and a large round nose on his face. "And that, Mario, is the tale of the Elemental Overlord. Oh ho ho ho ho ho." The old man says.

The portly Italian man crosses his arms and thinks. "So what a-happened to the a-guy after that a-battle?" Mario asks. "Oh ho ho ho, that's the fun part Mario." The old man says. "He managed to defeat the Dark King and sealed him away forever." "I guess that's understandable" Mario says. "I'm not done yet." The man says. "Sorry Professor E. Gadd." Mario says in an apologetic tone. "The Overlord ended up suffering grave wounds that put him at the edge of death. Wanting the world to still have a protector just like himself, he split his powers into seven separate stones and placed them in temples scattered across this very planet!" E. Gadd exclaims. Mario wonders about something. "What is with this a-planet and the number a-seven?" He says to himself. "Anyways, I have managed to find a giant tablet that details the exact locations of each temple! Unluckily though, I have to translate the passages to find out where each temple is located at. In the mean time though, I need you to go somewhere for me." The old professor says.

"Oh? Where do you want a-me to a-go?" Mario asks. "Planet Earth." As E. Gadd says this, and ominous latin chorus goes off in the background. Mario is quick to notice this. "Where did that a-come from?" Mario asks. "Oh, I seem to have gotten a call on my Shell Phone. Hold on a second Mario." E. Gadd then pulls out a small green turtle shell from his lab coat pocket and answers it. "Hello? Oh yes, this is Professor E. Gadd. Oh ho ho ho, so the parts will arrive four days from now? Excellent, thanks." E. Gadd turns his phone off and puts it back into the pocket of his lab coat. "Who was that?" Mario asks. "Delivery company, they are going to be delivering some hydraulic parts to me later that I will use to upgrade F.L.U.D.D. into a more powerful device. Oh ho ho ho ho." E. Gadd chuckles. "What about that a-chorus? Was that your a-ringtone?" Mario asks. "Oh heavens no. To be honest, I have no clue where that chorus came from. But there are more important things to worry about, so let me get back to what I was talking about." E. Gadd says.

"You see, there is a prophecy that states that a special boy shall inherit the overlord's sacred powers, and be reborn from the flames as the protector of all worlds. The prophecy states that he must be guided to the seven elemental temples and a stone must be taken from each one. Once all the stones are gathered, it is said the way to the Origin Temple will be revealed...The rest of the prophecy is chipped off from that point, but it seems like a pretty simple task." E. Gadd says. Mario nods his head in agreement. "Wait...Earth is a pretty big a-place last I a-checked. How will I find this a-boy?" Mario asks. "Oh ho ho ho." E. Gadd laughs in amusement. "Amazingly enough, the tablet I found contains precise coordinates that says where the child of prophecy is."

"That's seems a tad too convenient." Mario points out. "Well, they say the Overlord was also an oracle of sorts, with his ability to see the future, I wouldn't put it past him to know where his reincarnation would be born at." E. Gadd says. "Ok...So how will I get to a-Earth?" Mario asks. "Oh ho ho ho, I may be old, but that doesn't mean that I didn't think of this!" E. Gadd says. The old man walks over to a giant grey cloth that is hanging in front of a wall and tugs the corner of it. The cloth falls off an octagonal shaped, red and white striped gate. "Behold my latest invention... The **STARGADD**!" E. Gadd exclaims, the last part of his sentence carrying a much louder tone than the rest of his sentence. "Interesting..." Mario says. "I know right?" E. Gadd says. "This simple looking device will allow anyone to travel to any location in the known universe! As long as you know the name of the planet you wish to go to OR you know the name of a person or place on the planet, then you can travel anywhere your heart desires! For example, say you wanted to go to the Beanbean Kingdom quickly, you would just have to mention a part of the Kingdom like Jokes End or Teehee Valley, or a person that lives there like Lady Lima or Queen Bean. Here, let me show you."

E. Gadd types in some info into the Stargadd's control panel, and a multicolored swirling portal appears in the center of the metallic frame. "Be right back Mario." E. Gadd says. The old professor then walks through the portal. Mario watches in amazement, but he doesn't have to watch long for E. Gadd ends up coming back out of the portal a few seconds later with a Whacka Bump in his hands. "I set the coordinates for Pirate's Grotto. More specifically, I set them for the Whacka that lives there. This Bump is proof that I went to that exact location." E. Gadd then flings the Bump onto a nearby steel table. "So, got any other questions Mario?" E. Gadd asks. Mario shakes his head. "Ok then." E. Gadd walks over to the control panel and types in some new coordinates. The portal shows no signs of change, but Mario bravely steps into it to take a journey to Earth. Little did he know that this would be the start of the longest week of his life...

**Clash of the Elements Part 1: A Flame Reborn**

**Chapter 1: The Chosen**

On Earth, in a mountain range, we see a young brown haired boy jogging across the mountain range. He jogs until he reaches the top of the mountain. As he reaches the top, we can see the rest of his body. His eyes are dark blue, he's wearing a red short sleeved shirt, black jeans, and a red watch. His hair is medium length, and a bowl cut to it. His body is sweating, and the sweat that drips down his face flies into the air due to the cool yet subtle breeze that fills the mountain air. The boy's stomach growls. "Well, that was a nice jog and all, but it seems as though my body requires nourishment. It's almost noon too...That walk took about thirty minutes today." The boy turns around to head back down the hill when a wild billy goat crosses his path. "A wild billy goat? ...Oh cr-" The boy is cut off when the billy goat uses his massive horns to ram right into the boy's gut. The impact of the goat's horns sends the boy flying backwards off the top of the cliff.

At the bottom of this mountain range lies a medium sized two story yellow house with a brown rooftop. A swirly multicolored portal opens up a few feet away from the house, and our heroic plumber jumps out of it. He looks around, and a feeling of nostalgia rushes through his mind. "Ah, good ol' a-Earth. I remember when I used to live in a-Brooklyn, and I was a construction a-worker...Good a-times...Good a-times." Mario says. "AAUGHH!" A voice yells out from above. "Hmmm?" Mario says. He looks up, only to find the body of the boy rapidly descending towards his face. "MAMA M-" Mario exclaims, but is cut off when the boy falls down right on top of him. Both Mario and him are KO'd for a few minutes, but the boy regains his consciousness first. He grips his head tightly with his left hand. "Ugh, that hurt..." He says. He then gets up onto his two feet and looks around. "That's odd, I thought I heard a person yelling..." He looks around some more just to make sure that no one is stalking him, but only sees an indent in the ground where he landed, and the body of a fat Italian man that has filled in that indent.

"Ah, nothing unusual here..." The boy says, before proceeding to walk towards his house, then he freezes in place when he realizes that he just flattened a fat Italian man. Then he turns around slowly when he realizes that the person he is referring to is THE Mario, and upon realizing that he starts sweating like mad because he has no clue how to react to the fact that a supposed fictional character is lying on the ground away from him, though that doesn't last for long as the portly plumber awakens from his slumber and begins to lift his head up off the grass. "Ugh...Mama mia, what fell on me?" Mario weakly asks, before opening his eyes to see the boy staring at him with a happy expression painted across his face. "Hey, are you ok Mario?" The boy asks. "Yeah, I'm a-fin-" Mario suddenly wonders as to how the boy knew of his name. "Waaaaaait, how do you know my a-name?" Mario asks. "Oh? You don't know?" The boy says with a curious look on his face.

"No..." Mario says. "Well, you look pretty beat up. I'll carry you inside my house and we'll talk about both of our tales over a hot plate of spaghetti!" Alex exclaims. Mario, knowing that he has a mission to accomplish, is almost reluctant to follow this boy into his house, but he is curious about how he is know on Earth, AND the coordinates did bring him here, so this boy is probably the one he is looking for, unless other people are living in this house. "Ok, I suppose I will come in." Mario says. "Alright!" The boy excitedly says. He then carries the weakened Mario towards the front door of his house. A few minutes later, the plumber and the boy are sitting on some chairs in the living room with hot plates of spaghetti in front of them. "So, about how you know of a-me?" Mario asks.

"I do owe you an explanation. First off, let me get a couple things out of the way. Sorry for falling on you, first of all." The boy says. Mario just waves his hand around. "No a-problem." He says. "Second, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alex Whiter." The boy says, extending his hand out to properly greet Mario "Nice to a-meet you Alex." Mario says, extending his hand out as well so both of them can shake. After they are done shaking they retract their hands. "Alright, now let me talk to you about yourself. Or at least, how this world interprets you." Alex says.

Alex ends up spending the next hour explaining to Mario about the many wondrous video games that a company called Nintendo had produced. His brief descriptions of each game remind Mario exactly of the types of adventures he has gone through in his life. He is also thrilled to know that his games have had such a great and positive impact on not just gamers' lives, but the lives of the rest of the populace as well. When Mario hears that all this was possible thanks to a single man named Shigeru Miyamoto, he sheds a single tear from his left eye. Alex finishes up the tale of Mario's adventures on Earth by this point. "And that's the whole tale. To be honest, I'm surprised you are able to talk and all. Pretty much all the games have you as a mute for the most part." Alex says.

"Fiction and a-reality are very a-different." Mario says. "Indeed" Alex responds. "By the way, what are you doing here anyways?" Alex curiously asks. Mario flinches for a brief moment. He knew that this moment was coming, but during the time he spent in awe over Alex's tales he didn't come up with a way to break it to him, so he decided to stall for a bit by asking a question. "Say, do you have any brothers or a-sisters that live in this a-house?" Mario asks. Alex shakes his head. "Nope, only child." He responds. In this time Mario is able to figure out just what he needs to say. "Well, I have to a-tell you this then Alex..." Mario says. For the next five minutes Mario explains the tale of the Element Overlord that E. Gadd had talked to him about, along with the prophecy and how he got to Earth in the first place. When Mario is done, Alex's expression has changed from happy to surprised.

"M-m-m-me?" Alex says, his eyes lit up like a couple of firefly lights. "There must be some mistake, I mean seriously! There's no way that that could be possible!" Alex says. "Prophecy states a set of a-coordinates on Earth Alex, I find a-you here, and without any other a-kids living here, you are the only a-one that could match up the a-prophecy." Alex suddenly frowns. "Mario, there is something seriously wrong with that logic." He says. "Oh?" Mario asks. "First off, the guy predicted EXACTLY where the person who was going to become his reincarnation would live, yet never gave any details as to what he will look like, second, it doesn't sound like he specified a year when the person would be living here, so that means that the time period when the real reincarnation person might've lived around here could've already passed! It sounds too contrived to assume that I'm the Overlord's reincarnation at all..." Alex says.

"...Well, that is quite a-true Alex. Still, I've come all this a-way looking for a-person like a-you. Destiny comes knocking to a-those who least expect it after-a all." Mario says. "So will you a-come and at least a-try and see if this prophecy was a-meant for a-you?" He asks, tilting his head while waiting for an answer. Alex thinks about Mario's words, and comes up with an answer. "Ok, I will go with you Mario." He says. Mario readjusts his head back into it's normal position and smiles. "Alrighty then Alex. Let's-a go!" He exclaims with a feeling of intense excitement. "Okay!" Alex exclaims. The two of them then head outside of Alex's house, with Alex giving the old home a good ol' goodbye before he leaves. "I'll be back someday!" Alex says while waving at the house. Mario then realizes something. "Wait! What about your a-parents?" Mario says.

Alex stops waving, his body freezes up, and he starts sweating slightly. He turns around and nervously rubs the back of his head while his eyes are closed. "Well, you see...About that. They are off on an extended vacation to Paris. They won't be back for a week, so I'm good until then." Alex says, his body continuing to sweat. Mario glares at Alex in suspicion of his tale, but just shrugs. "Meh, I guess that understandable." Mario points out. Alex calms down and his body stops sweating. They then head through the swirly multicolored portal to head back to E. Gadd's lab. Behind a nearby tree, a mysterious person walks out from behind it. "Where are you going, Whiter?" The person says in a deep voice. Back in the Portal from Alex's perspective, you can see what the portal looks like on the inside. On the sides of the portal, you can see various events from old Mario Games, like the Minus World trick, Mario tossing Bowser into a spiked ball, the Galaxy Exploding, Mario vs. Super Dimentio, and various other events from the Mario series as well. At the very end of the portal journey, a bright light engulfs the both of them, leaving them back in E. Gadd's lab, even though the place now seems slightly torn up.

Alex looks a bit concerned. "This is E. Gadd's lab? I know the man's a bit of a mad scientist and all, but I expected him to keep a tidier workplace than this..." He says, his eyes shut slightly to show concern for the shape of the lab. E. Gadd comes crawling across the ground, his body beaten and bruised. Mario's eyes widen and he rushes over to check up on him. He's still alive, despite the wounds that have been placed on his body. Alex walks over to E. Gadd as well. E. Gadd slowly raises his head up and looks at Mario, his glasses cracked around the edges. "Mario..You came back..." E. Gadd weakly says. "What happened while I was a-gone Professor?" Mario asks. The Professor's body trembles with fear, and he finds it hard to say the name of the person who did this, but with what little energy he has left at this time, he is able to mutter a name that Mario thought he'd never hear again. "Cackletta..." The Professor then faints, Mario's expression changes to total shock, and Alex wonders whats going on. "Mario?" Alex asks in a timid tone. Mario gets up, and rushes for the exit of the lab. "Mario!" Alex exclaims as he rushes after him. "Wait up! What's going on? Mario!"

_Next Chapter: The Witch Returns! The Mustard of Doom Tastes Sour!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Return of the Witch.**

Mario and Alex run out of E. Gadd's lab, and see a small green man in a red cloak and a helmet, using a tube from said helmet to fire green orbs at the mushroom shaped buildings. As he destroys everything around him, he laughs like a madman. He is being watched over by a tall green person with purple and yellow striped beans on her head, who is also wearing a purple robe that wraps around her whole body. "Ahahahahah! This brings me great joy! Like a little kid on a ride that exists in a park that is amusing! Mistress Cackletta, shall I continue?" The small man turns his head to look at his accomplice, waiting eagerly for her to respond. "Yes Fawful, you may continue destroying the place until he shows u-" The woman hears footsteps quickly approaching her, and turns around to find both Mario and the young boy running at her. The two of them stop just a few feet away from the two enemies. "Huh, took you long enough to show up, plumber..." Cackletta brushes aside both parts of her robe.

The portly plumber takes a few moments to take in the fact that one of his old enemies Cackletta, who he saw die right before his very eyes, is standing before him alive and well. As he does this, the short man called Fawful turns himself around, and upon seeing Mario he starts laughing once more. "I have also returned! Like the germs made of the creatures that make my bacon compressed into the form of an aerial disease!" Mario didn't even notice that the little green man was there, and is just as surprised to see him as he is to see Cackletta. "Cackletta! Fawful! How are you two still alive?" The plumber asks. "Ehehehehe!" The witch responds with her signature laugh. "If I told you, that would ruin the fun."

"So what do you want this time, you vile witch?" Alex asks, punching his open right hand with his left fist. "...Who is this annoying brat?" Cackletta says, pointing one of her wrinkled fingers in the direction of where the boy is currently standing, an action which she takes back not a moment after wards. "Whatever, I don't particularly care. I won't give away all the details...I'll just say that I found that tablet of yours to be a rather pleasant read..." As the witch grins, Mario gets a surprised look on his face. "Is that why you beat up E. Gadd?" He says. "Yes, I beat him up because he was unwilling to give up the location...At first, that is..." Cackletta's grin widens, and as the plumber gets a scowl on his face, Fawful sees the need to add in to the conversation. " Yes, like a criminal in an interrogation room, he was unwilling to talk until his mind was probed in a fashion similar to that of a person who does the reading of the mind!"

"Quiet Fawful." Cackletta says with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "...I have fury." The little man whispers to himself. "I must admit though, this works out rather conveniently for me. Not only do I have the info that I require, but I will be able to finish off one of the two plumbers that ruined my plans in the Beanbean Kingdom!" With that said, Cackletta raises her left arm out to the side of her body. A lightning bolt comes down from above and almost smites Alex, but the boy manages to notice it in time and jumps backwards to get out of the way. "That was close..." Alex says, wiping some newly formed sweat off of his forehead with his arm. "Hey, Alex, now might be a bad time to ask, but can you a-fight?" Mario asks.

"Yeah, I know a few moves. But I suppose if you could give me the low-down on how she attacks, I should be able to take her." Mario nods his head, and Fawful looks annoyed, as he begins to mutter something to himself. "Why is Fawful being ignored?" Cackletta lowers her arm and gets a rather serious look on her face. "Hmm, nice dodge, but try this one on for size!" The witch raises her right arm, and for no explainable reason, time completely stops. Then the plumber walks over to Cackletta and turns himself around so he's looking at Alex. "When Cackletta raises her right arm, that means that she is going to attack me. When she raises her left arm, that means she is going to attack you." Mario walks back to his original spot and turns around once again to face the two enemies. Time resumes, and as a lightning bolt comes down, Mario jumps back to avoid it.

"I see I'll have to try something different..." Cackletta lowers her arm, but it only takes a few seconds for her to raise both arms out to the side. Once again, time stops, and Mario walks over to Cackletta. "Now that she has raised both of her arms, she'll send lightning bolts at both of us at the same time. Be on your a-guard, and you should be able to dodge her attacks and counter them with ease." The plumber walks back to his original location and when time resumes he and Alex both jump back to avoid the lightning bolts. However, a lightning bolt never targets Alex. Instead, another one aims for Mario, causing him to have to jump backwards once more. The witch lowers her arms as the plumber looks on in surprise. "Plumber, I don't know how time stopped, but don't go spouting off tutorials. What do you think this is, a game?"

"No." Mario responds to the witch. "Good...Now let us fight seriously. Fawful, you can take the boy. The plumber is mine..." Cackletta holds her hands out in front of her body and cracks her knuckles. Her companion lets out an ecstatic laugh in glee, and uses his willpower to command his helmet to start firing green orbs at the boy. While Alex takes the time to dodge the attacks, Mario sets his sights on the witch. "Now! Take this!" Cackletta snaps her crinkly fingers, and a hole opens up in the sky that fires a red laser beam at the plumber. Mario ducks to avoid the attack, but Cackletta summons another hole that fires yet another laser at him. To avoid this one, Mario somersaults along the ground towards the witch, rolling himself directly underneath the laser at the same time. Then the plumber gets on his feet and leaps upward to try and uppercut the witch, only for her to dodge the attack by retreating into a black dimensional hole she made in the ground.

Even when she vanishes, the hole stays in place, causing Mario to wave his arms around mid-air in fear. He had experienced these holes first hand, and he knew that even though the witch suffers no negative side effects from traveling through them, anyone she sends through them ends up getting hurt by magical forces that exist within. As he falls towards the hole he extends his arms out so his hands can grab hold of the edge and pull himself back up onto the ground unharmed. Once he does this, the hole seals up and Cackletta reappears a few feet behind him. "Ehehehehe..." As she laughs she raises her right arm, ready to send another lightning bolt crashing down upon Mario. The plumber turns around upon hearing her laugh, and manages to dodge the attack by rolling out of the way. Cackletta predicts where his roll will take him though, and summons forth another dimensional hole for him to fall into.

A few seconds after the hole is sealed up, Mario falls down from above and lands face first onto the ground. Then the witch raises both of her arms to summon two lightning bolts to come down from different directions to smite the fallen plumber. To avoid these incoming attacks, Mario presses his hands against the ground and lifts the rest of his body up into the air, then leaps upward to dodge both lightning bolts with ease. Then the portly plumber spins his body around so his feet are facing the ground, and once he lands he puts one knee on the ground and slightly adjusts his hat to the left. "You are persistant, plumber..." Cackletta says in a complimentary tone. Mario responds by standing up and dusting his gloves off. "Says the one who came back only to be defeated once again." "We'll just see about that..." The witch prepares to cast another spell at Mario, her left hand filling with magical energy...

Meanwhile, Alex is managing to avoid the brunt of Fawful's barrage of energy orbs by jumping over the ones that are aimed at the ground and rolling under the ones that are aimed at his face. "Fawful has fury over the fact that this isn't working! Now Fawful shall switch to a new method which is appropriately given the name that is the second letter of the alphabet!" With those words said, the little green man lifts his stubby little arms up and taps a small red button on the back of his helmet. His headgear stops firing and the metallic mouth-like device that was shooting the orbs retracts into the helmet itself. A few seconds later though, four metallic appendages begin to emerge from around the helmet. Before they've even extended six inches out of the helmet, Alex jumps at Fawful and kicks him hard in the chin, sending him flying into a nearby tree. The man's impact with the tree causes it to be split in half, the upper half being turned on it's side and falling onto the ground once gravity takes hold of it.

"What, you think I was just going to stand still and let you do whatever it is you were trying to do?" Though Alex acts confident now, the moment he sees a mechanical claw thrust out at the fallen tree and latch onto it, his pupils shrink as he slumps forward with a surprised drop of the jaw. As the wood is raised into the air, Alex is able to see the source of the claw coming from behind it. Fawful is standing tall, lifted up off the ground by three other mechanical arms. "Now then, I shall..." Fawful stays silent for a few moments, finding it hard to come up with a witty comment for this situation. "Fawful's got nothing...CHORTLES!" With that remark the little green man commands his arms to toss the tree at Alex. Having seen this coming though, mainly due to the fact that Fawful waited too long to toss it, the boy is able to get out of the way by running to the left.

As he keeps running, Alex tries to come up with a plan to deal with the arms, but finds that with four of them there it will be impossible for him to remove even one of them from the helmet without the others grabbing a hold of him. "Guess I'll just have to stall until Mario deals with Cackletta..." The boy thinks to himself. Then he notices a rock that is roughly the size of Fawful's helmet lying on the ground a few feet away from him. "Unless..." The young boy waits until Fawful lashes one of his metal tentacles at him, then proceeds to lunge forward and roll along the ground beneath it to end up near the rock. He then quickly gets back on his feet and places his hands around the rock. He tries to use all of his strength to pull the rock out of the ground, but it turns out he underestimated just how big the object truly was and is thus unable to make it budge even an inch.

"Huh...Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time." As he regrets his folly, Alex hears the mechanical whirring of Fawful's helmet as the little green man turns himself around and gets ready to send another tentacle at him. Before the strike can occur, the young boy turns and watches as Mario leaps into the air behind Fawful and stomps hard on his helmet, disrupting the man's concentration and preventing the attack from happening in the process. As the plumber lands on the other side and grabs the edge of his cap, one of Cackletta's lightning attacks smites Fawful, even though Mario was her intended target. This attack short-circuits the helmet and causes the tentacles to retract, forcing Fawful to stay suspended in the air for a few seconds as he looks around nervously. He then rears his head back and begins to chuckle. "I have fury!" Is what he yells before he falls onto the ground.

A quick look at the witch reveals that the magical energy has left her hands, and she has folded both of them back into her cloak. "Well, that was a well-played move, plumber. You saved your little companion there from certain death...For now." Mario turns around and as he stares right into the eyes of the evil witch, Alex turns his head and nervously rubs the back of his head. "Heh...Thanks a lot there Mario, I really shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place..." The plumber glances to the left and nods his head slightly in agreement. "Yes, but it's alright, you aren't used to these situations. Just try and be a little more a-careful, ok?" "Ok" Alex says quickly in response.

Cackletta looks at the two heroes, changing her glance from Mario to Alex, then back to Mario once more before slowly lifting her left hand up, indicating that she is going to target the very aware plumber. Mario jumps into the air, only for Cackletta to reveal that she lifted that arm to fake him out, and quickly raises her right arm to slowly summon a dimensional hole from underneath Alex's feet. Since he is being affected by the pull of gravity, there is no way for Mario to get over there in time to grab him by the hand and pull him out. Though he looks to be doomed, the young boy has a smile on his face while his body refuses to fall into the hole. This causes Cackletta to raise her brow in suspicion. "Eh? What manner of sorcery is this? ...That sounded weird coming from me, personally."

"No sorcery involved here Cackletta." Alex says as he wiggles his right pointer finger out at the witch. "I can fly, but I guess you wouldn't know that, seeing as you just met me. Now, if you don't mind..." The young boy flies forward and lifts his foot into the air, delivering a powerful kick right into the witch's shocked face, the force of his attack sending her flying into a Mushroom House that had been broken apart by Fawful's earlier blasts. After lowering his feet and skidding along the ground to a stop, Alex watches as Cackletta slowly rises out of the rubble. Though her face is marked by the pattern on the sole of the young boy's shoe, she looks relatively unharmed. Despite this, she waves her hand and summons a dimensional hole right beside herself and Fawful, her face grinning with joy as she does so.

"Come Fawful, we must retreat and think up a new strategy." Alex gets ready to jump at the witch to prevent her escape, but both her and her colleague slip into the holes just as they close up, leaving the young boy to snap his fingers in disappointment. "She got away..." Alex stands still for a few seconds, before remembering that Mario is still in the area. "Oh!" He blurts out in surprise before quickly turning around to see that the plumber's jaw has greatly dropped with his wide-open in shock. "W-W-What was that?" Mario stutters out loud. "Umm...You were seeing things?" Alex nervously says to try and sway the plumber away from the subject. "Oh no I a-wasn't! There are only a few ways that one can fly in this a-world, and because you just came here you couldn't possibly be in a-possession of any of them, so how were you able fly just now?" "I'd like to answer your question Mario, I really would, but shouldn't we go check up on E. Gadd first?" Mario shakes his head as he too remembers that they left the Professor in the lab, and after getting a serious look on his face he nods his head in agreement with Alex's idea and the two of them rush back into the lab.

_Next Chapter: To the Woods we go!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom!**

With the battle with Cackletta over with, Mario and Alex rush back down into E. Gadd's lab. They expect to find the professor still on the ground in pain and his lab in ruins, but when they reach the bottom of the staircase what they see is the exact opposite of what they assumed would be there. E. Gadd is sitting on a high chair near one of his lab tables with a stone tablet in hand and a single bandage on his forehead. As for the rest of the lab, from how clean is currently looked it would be impossible to tell that it was ever damaged in the first place. While Alex is flabbergasted by how that could be possible, Mario merely shrugs his shoulders and advances towards the professor.

"How are you not surprised by this Mario?" Alex asks. "Simple. E. Gadd is a scientist, I'm just plain used to this type of unexplainable stuff by now." The plumber responds while glancing over his left shoulder. "Hmm...Good point." The young boy mumbles under his breath while keeping his left fist pressed against the bottom of his chin while giving the issue at hand one last thought before he joins Mario in checking up on the professor. Having heard the two of them talking, E. Gadd turns his chair around to properly greet them. "Ah, welcome back Mario and..." The professor nudges his glasses while leaning his head forward to look at the boy he had never seen before. "...I assume you must be the boy that the prophecy referred to, yes?"

Having been distracted by curiosity at the many inventions he can see in the lab, it takes a moment for Alex to realize that he is being spoken to, and he promptly turns his head towards the professor in order to respond. "Uh-huh, that would be me...The name's Alex, and I've heard a lot of good things about you professor." He says in a complimentary tone. "Oh?" E. Gadd says with one raised eyebrow. "What did Mario say about me?" "Nothing, I just know about you because of the Mario video games I used to play on Earth." With Alex's quick response, the professor lets out one of his signature chuckles before placing the tablet flat onto the table. "So, there are games in your world that speak of our exploits? I'm quite intrigued by that...Any chance that you would be able to mention one of those particular games to us real quick?"

"Well, off the top of my head I remember a game that showed Mario and Luigi going through seven hotels that Bowser had set up for his kids to rescue Peach...I vaguely remember something about a toaster as well..." While Alex is deep in thought, Mario turns around and gives E. Gadd a confused glare and a shrug of the shoulders as its clear that neither one of them know about the events that the boy has stated. While the professor returns the plumber's shrug with one of his own, he can be seen nonchalantly tossing a memory erasing ray gun into a trash can behind him with a flick of his right fingers, the clanking noise it makes as it hits the side of the can drawing Alex's attention back towards E. Gadd.

"What was that noise?" He asks. "Oh, just was tossing an old can of soda into the trash...Anyways, thank you for that bit of info. Now, since you are both here alive, I can assume that you dealt with Cackletta and her incoherent companion?" The professor says to quickly change the subject. "Well, I wouldn't say we defeated her so much as she just considered her goal complete and chose to leave." Mario says while nervously rubbing the back of his head. "She did mention something about "reading a tablet" though before we fought her. I'm guessing the one she spoke of is the same one you currently have on the table?" Alex says while motioning his head in the direction of the stone slab.

E. Gadd takes his right hand and places it down onto the tablet while twisting his head around to look down onto it. "That is true, as much as I hate to admit it." He says with a deep tone of regret before lifting his head up and looking straight at his company. "Not long after you left, I hid the tablet underneath an invisibility field of my own design just in case any ne'er-do-wells were to show up to try and ransack the place. Sure enough, the witch made her presence known only a few minutes later. Using her dark sorcery, she tortured me about the tablet's location until her partner accidentally bumped into the field that kept the object hidden. Then, she used her magic to remove it and levitate the tablet up in front of her face in order to read it over. It didn't take her long to do so, but oddly enough instead of taking it with her she placed it back onto the table, let out a cackle or two, and left the lab without saying a word...I can assume she left because she saw the Stargadd's portal starting to stir with activity and assumed that you were returning..."

"That sounds horrible..." Alex says with a great deal of sympathy in his voice. "Oh, it was nothing too damaging...She just attacked my psych, which of course can't really work on someone with a mental capacity such as my own. Ohohohoho!" Despite how he sounded just a moment ago, E. Gadd has now reverted back to his more cheerful personality. "Wait professor, from the way you were talking just a moment ago it sounds like Cackletta reading the tablet is a bad thing. How so? I thought it only spoke of the Overlord's final battle and the location of the one destined to take his powers?" Mario is quick to point out. "Did you forget already? The tablet also details the exact locations of the seven temples where the Overlord put the stones that contained each of his elemental powers into."

Upon hearing the number, Alex lifts his fists up near his face and begins to count off the elements he knew one by one while lifting his head up to stare at the ceiling while he mumbles the element's names. As he does this, both Mario and E. Gadd spend a little time discussing something, their voices unheard by the boy thank to how deep in thought he is. Once they are done, the plumber turns around and notices Alex looking down at his hands with six fingers held up. "What are you doing there Alex?" He asks. "Just having a hard time figuring out what the seventh element is...So far I got Fire, Ice, Water, Earth, Lightning, and Sky...What could that last one possibly be?" "Grass, or rather, Plants in general." E. Gadd quickly responds.

"I thought about that..." Alex says with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "But I had assumed that it would've fallen under the same category as the Earth element...I guess it just refers to rocks and the like in that case. Though I must admit, that was a rather swift response professor." "The reason I was able to answer your question as easily as I did was because I got the first half of the green text translated already..." E. Gadd grabs the tablet with both hands and after a small struggle he lifts it up and places it down below his feet, the heavy object resting flat against the bars on his seat as he bends forward and points at the words he just mentioned. Mario kneels down and takes a look at it, but finds that he is unable to recognize the language.

"What is this supposed to a-be?" Mario asks as he lifts his head up to look at the professor, who nudges his glasses with his free hand before lifting the tablet back onto the table with all his might. The weight of the object slamming down onto the surface almost threatens to snap the furniture's legs in half. "They are ancient Beanbean runes, from a time long before the actual Kingdom was established. I must say that I am in a bit of a pickle in regards to translating this, so it may take me a good fifteen..thirty more minutes before I'm done. In the meantime though, how about you take Alex around for a tour of the town? Get him as used to the populace as you can so he doesn't suffer from any possible culture shock later on..."

"Hmm, I suppose I should..." As he talks, something suddenly dawned on the italian plumber. "Hey wait a second!" He says, quickly turning around and giving Alex a funny glare while raising one hand and wagging his pointer finger at him, which causes the boy to flinch in surprise. "You think I would forget about you flying when we battled Cackletta, hmmm?" "Come again?" E. Gadd lifts his head up and turns his chair around. "What is this about the boy being able to fly?" He says out of interest towards the subject. "Yeah, Alex can fly without the use of a Red Star, Tanooki Suit, Cape Feather, or any sort of power-up for that matter." Mario responds to the professor's inquiry. "Hmm..." E. Gadd taps the side of his glasses, causing the lenses to turn black and grant him X-ray vision.

"Interesting, you don't have any machinery on you...So tell me Alex." E. Gadd shifts his glasses back to their normal state with another tap. "How are you able to fly, per say?" "Hehehe..." As the boy chuckles he closes his eyelids so the professor can't read too deep into his smiling expression as he prepares to speak. "Would you believe me if I told you that I found a scroll hidden in a cave surrounded by seven glowing balls that taught me how to do it?" "Considering I don't know anything about how things work on Earth, then yes, I do believe you." The stubby old man jumps off of his chair and starts to wander about the lab with his arms folded behind his back. "If scrolls allow one to fly, then who am I to question it? After all, I live in a world where hills have eyes and Mushrooms can either heal you or make you grow, and yet I haven't bothered to question any of it...Anyways, I'm gonna get to work on the translation...Enjoy your tour around town, alright?" With his wish of good faith, Mario and his new companion Alex head off up the stairs.

However, before they reach the top, the red and blue garbed plumber has a couple of things to ask. "So would it be possible for you to teach me that flying technique of yours?" "Hmm...Probably not. To be honest, it was a couple of years ago, and I didn't take the scroll back with me, so I've forgotten how I learned it...Well, partially anyways. The full details might pop back into my head later, but besides, do you really need to learn such a thing when you got so many other methods of traversing the air?" "A fair point." With Mario dropping the conversation with a shrug of the shoulders, the two of them step out of the dim stairway area and enter the bright and rejuvenated Toad Town...Whose damages have already been repaired by the mushroom headed citizens.

Awestruck by such a quick reconstruction job, Alex struggles to say even a single word as he jaw stands dropped with one finger shaking as it has been raised into the air. "How the..." Is all he can bring himself to say before Mario speaks up. "Surprised?" As he tilts his hat forward by grabbing onto the front of it, Alex shakes his head and returns to his normal posture. "Well yeah, I mean a couple of houses did get broken after all..." "Fair point, but the townsfolk are so used to Bowser coming in with his Doomships and wreaking havoc on the populace and buildings that everyone has made sure that there are enough construction workers around to quickly repair whatever damages may eventually occur in town." "Huh, that's some pretty good thinking there." After the two of them have finished their exchange of words, they head on over to the closest Item Shop, which unlike most of the buildings around there actually looks like a normal kind of structure with a curved "Item Shop" tell-tale sign above the door instead of the typical Mushroom roofed houses.

Upon entering through the door, they are greeted by the owner of this humble store, a green capped Toad with a split mustache and a billboard held between his right arm and the rest of his body which he uses to keep track of his inventory every day. "Ah, greetings Mario." The Toad says with a thin British accent. "And who is your new friend there?" He nudges his head towards Alex, who Mario gestures towards with a swing of his left arm. "My name is Alex Whiter. A pleasure to meet you." The boy says, holding his hands against his kneecaps and tilting his head forward for a moment before lifting it back up. "He is from Earth." Mario adds on to his friend's previous statement. "You mean like you and Luigi are?" The shopkeeper points out while rubbing his chin out of curiosity. "Yeah, kind of like us." The plumber answers with a nod of his head. "Well, make yourself welcome here Alex. As you can see I have everything from Mushrooms to Stone Caps to Dizzy Dials...Though I can see that you are already taking an interest in that last one."

Indeed, for at the moment Alex can be seen bending over next to a row of light-blue two-dimensional swirls with his eyelids squinted to get a better look at them. "So how do you work these exactly?" He asks, his interest piqued. "That's easy to answer. To use a Dizzy Dial, one must raise it above their head with one hand and gently rub the left side down to the bottom to get it to start spinning in mid-air. Anyone within a visible 2-yard range will become dizzy for a short period of time, unless their minds are resistant to such a thing. Even so, early on in a quest this item can prove to be an invaluable asset." With the shopkeeper's helpful explanation, the boy claps his hands together and lifts himself up to turn around and look at Mario. "Any chance that we can buy one of these Dials, Mario?" He asks.

"Sure thing Alex. In fact, I was gonna pick up a Maple Syrup, Fire Flower, and POW Block anyways, so spending a couple more coins on that wouldn't be too much of a problem." Turning to the shopkeeper, Mario extends his right arm and opens the hand to reveal twenty golden coins. "Will this cover my order?" He asks. The Toad closes his eyelids and shakes his head back and forth while holding one hand up to reject the plumber's money. "No need to pay this time, take what you want free of charge. It's the least I can do for you after the many, many times you have saved our fair Kingdom." Thankful for the shopkeeper's generosity, Mario puts his money back into his overalls and with the help of Alex grabs one of each item, at the same time discretely putting ten coins on the counter as he turns around from picking up the POW Block. After thanking the Toad for his help, the two heroes leave the store and head on to their next destination.

After passing through the big blue gate with a yellow star on the front in the northern side of town, Mario and Alex come upon a large multi-tiered castle with a red tiled roof and a mosaic of a certain pink-dressed Princess on the front. "Whoa..." The boy stands still in awe and takes a moment to take in the wonderful architecture looming in front of him as Mario continues on ahead a bit before realizing that his friend has stopped, at which point he turns his head around to see the giddy smile that Alex has on his face as his body is trembling in anticipation. "You going to be ok?" The plumber asks with one of his eyebrows raised. "Hehehe...It's funny. This is the type of thing that you'd think you'd only get to experience in your dreams...To actually see something like this in its full glory, I got to admit, its quite overwhelming." After he has had his fill of the sights, Alex tightly clenches his fists to pull himself together and continue onward alongside Mario.

"I'm good now, don't worry about it." The boy assures the plumber, who nods his head to agree with that statement. Once at the small stone bridge to the castle, Mario explains to the two spear-wielding Toad guards about his business in being there, and they gladly move out of the way to allow the "Famed Mario and friend" to pass through the front door. Upon going inside, the plumber has to try his hardest to prevent Alex from wandering off to the other rooms in the building, at least until they reach the throne room at the very end of the second floor hallway, that is. "I can't even take a peak at the kitchen?" The boy says in a disappointed tone as he keeps his arms folded behind his head. "Not without the Princess' permission, sorry to say." Mario says, providing the shortest explanation he possibly can for the time being.

"Speaking of which, I just thought of something. Where the heck is Luigi?" Alex asks. "What brought that question up?" The plumber swiftly responds, giving a bit of chuckle at the end because of how sudden the question was. "Well usually when you go on adventures like these your brother either tags along or tries to avoid being involved until he is forced into the situation, or he is busy doing his own thing, like when the whole Waffle Kingdom thing happened." "Well, right now my bro is with Daisy in Sarassaland. I doubt he'll ever catch wind of me doing this quest until its all said and done. Still though, I do see your point." Mario answers. "Well, here we are." He then says, motioning to both Toad guards to lower their spears as they stand a foot away from the doors.

Once they are down, the two heroes walk through the star marked oak doors to enter the Princess' Throne Room, a massive room in the center of the castle with pillars on the sides keeping the ceiling supported while the blue tapestries are placed beside them. There are six stained glass windows on the sides with the same appearance as the one on the front of the castle, that speaking of which can currently be seen from the opposite side on the wall above the doorway, the sun's light being cast through it and in turn projecting its image down onto Alex and Mario. At the very end of the room on a royal red throne sits the Kingdom's ruler, the appropriately pink dress wearing blond named Peach. By her side, as usual, is her worrisome aide Toadsworth, an elderly Toad with a brown cap, regal outfit, and a mushroom topped cane that he uses to carry himself around from place to place.

As both heroes approach her royalness, she gets up off the seat of her throne and with her hands held in front of her dress she walks forward to greet the two of them. Once they have met at the center of the royal carpet, Peach moves her arms out to the side of her body and both her and Mario nod their heads once to greet each other, while Alex gets on one knee and crosses his left arm in front of his chest to pay his respects to this figure of royalty. Seeing him doing this from the corner of her eye, Peach places the tip of her right fingers against her mouth and lets out a quiet "Teehee" as she turns to look at him. "This a new friend of yours Mario?" She asks in a delicate tone of voice. Humming out his response, the plumber does two nods before also turning to look at the boy. "Alex, its alright, you don't need to act so formal."

"Oh?" Alex's eyelids thrust open and he stands back on his feet. He has a hard time looking directly at the Princess due to how embarrassed he feels around her, though that's only a direct result of how pretty he finds her to be. Even so, he tries to conduct himself in a manner suitable for this moment. "But yes, I am an acquaintance of Mario's. My name is Alex Whiter, and I'm from Earth." He says. "Oh, like Mario is?" Peach says out of interest. "So what brings you to our lovely planet anyways?" So for the next couple of minutes Alex and Mario talk about the events that brought the two of them to this point in time, as the Princess stands still and listens attentively to what they have to say. When they are done, she nods her head once to confirm that she understands everything.

"Well, I'm glad you are accommodating to the planet so far. Though be warned, if you are going on an adventure with Mario, you are certainly going to get some excitement out of it. But you can definitely trust him to have your back should you get into trouble. I should know, he has saved me from being kidnapped-" "About 16 times." All three of them say at the exact same time, which causes Peach to pause and blink a few times before continuing with what she was saying. "Either way, I wish you both the best of luck on your quest." After thanking her for her time, both Alex and Mario turn around and give the Princess a wave of the hand as they leave. But before they've even moved two feet away, the plumber remembers something important he forgot to give Peach. "I'll catch you outside the castle Alex, there is something I forgot to do." Though he stops in place, the boy only turns his head to the left and gives a nod as he continues to walk away.

Once he has left the area, Mario turns around and walks over to the Princess, drawing a Fire Flower from his left pocket and handing it over to her. "You asked me to get one of these, correct?" "Oh! Wonderful, you remembered! Now I'll be able to make those Burning Deviled Eggs for the upcoming Party, thank you so much Mario." Kneeling forward and giving her hero a kiss on the nose, Peach takes the Fire Flower out of his hands and keeps holding onto it until she'll be able to put it with the rest of her ingredients in the kitchen later. With the plumber's cheeks becoming a light shade of red, he gives the Princess a smile. "Not a problem Peach, least I can do." "It always is, isn't it? ...So Cackletta is back, huh?" "...Mm-hmm." Sensing the distress in Peach's voice, Mario stays quiet for but a moment before nodding in a happy manner.

"Its ok, no matter how she came or whatever her plan may be, I'll stop her just like me and Luigi did before." With one hop and a thumbs up in front of his chest, the plumber has successfully managed to break the Princess' frown and get her to let out a delighted chuckle. "Alright Mario, I know you'll be able to triumph against that witch. Now, I don't want to hold you up any further, so I'll see you later." After truly saying goodbye this time around, Mario departs from the castle. After he has left the throne room though, Peach turns around and walks back over to where Toadsworth is currently standing. Despite his age the old bean still overheard most of their conversation, and he tilts his head in confusion. "The Elemental Overlord? The seven temples? By golly, does Master Mario not realize what he is getting involved with here?" The Princess says nothing as she passes by her aide and sits down on her throne, her mind filled with nothing but concern for her hero as she senses that troubled times will soon be approaching...

Near the stone fountain right outside the castle, Alex can be seen staring at it as the plumber walks over to him. "Hey kid, I gotta fix the piping for this today, you mind moving off to the side so I can work?" After turning his head towards the Toad with the tool belt and a grimy appearance, the boy steps back a few feet to let him do his thing. Once he has moved, Mario comes over to him and looks over at the nearby gate to see a random Toad running over to them. Upon arriving at his destination, the shroomhead waves his arms back and forth with a great deal of urgency. "Mario Mario Mario! Professor E. Gadd wanted me to find you!" "What is it Toad?" Mario asks. "He said to tell you 'You know, I still had to give you my latest hand held communication device before you left.' or something to that extent. Oh, and he also told me to tell you to get back to the lab, something about stones and what-not. That's all, I'll catch you around, tell Luigi I said hi!" As the Toad turns around, Alex holds his hand out for he has something to ask. "Wait a second! Are you THE Toad?" The Toad stops in place for a moment as the wind gently blows on by, before he then turns his head to the left and says "Yes, yes I am..." In an over-the-top cool accent as he walks off into the distance. Not really having anything to say in the face of Toad's cheesiness, both heroes head on their way back to E. Gadd's lab...

_Next Chapter: Into the Forest! Welcome, Driad!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Guardian of the Leaves**

After a rather brief stroll through the town, Mario and Alex arrive back at the Professor's laboratory, where they find the old man looking at a map of the Kingdom on his wide computer screen and typing up something onto a word document until he hears the footsteps of the two heroes, at which point he stops what he is doing and turns his chair around to face them. "Well,its about timeyou got back. For a moment there I thought you would've gotten so caught up in exploring that Toad never would've been able to find you. Either way, I have something to give to you." Getting out of his chair, E. Gadd has in his left hand a round red electronic device with a piece on the top shaped like his hair and a blue screen covering the center of it. As he approaches the two heroes, he remembers something important he forgot to ask.

"Oh my, where are my manners? " He says in an apologetic tone. "Did you enjoy the tour of our fair town Alex?" "Admittedly, yes. I ESPECIALLY enjoyed seeing the castle up close and personal. Honestly, the people on Earth have managed to construct some very beautiful pieces of architecture, but none of them really display such a vibrant array of colors like Peach's did. But really, that and the Item Shop were the only two places I got a chance to visit." "Oh, you stopped by the shop? Did you find anything to your liking?" E. Gadd asks. "Just a Dizzy Dial. Mario bought a couple of other things for the upcoming journey, so that's always good." "I see, I see...Ohohohoho. Well, so long as you enjoyed yourself. By the way Mario, since you obviously went to the castle, how is the Princess faring these days? Ever since I moved my lab here, I haven't had a chance to visit her."

Having kept quiet all that time so the other two could have a chance to converse, Mario turns to look at the Professor upon hearing his name and updates him on how Peach has been doing over the last couple of months, E. Gadd nodding all the way to show that he understands everything being said to him. "Well, glad to hear that she is keeping well...Oh yeah, that's right, I need to give you this now." With his somewhat faulty memory causing him to draw a blank for a moment, once remembered the Professor holds his right hand out with the device balancing on his palm. "This is my newest creation, a portable device that allows you to play music, pull up a map, communicate with others, do games, keep track of your inventory, and on the off-chance that you are feeling deep, you can write poetry on it too. I call it...The iGadd!"

As Mario takes the device from the wrinkly old man's hand, Alex places his left fist against his lips and closes his eyes as he chuckles at the familiar sounding name for the device. "Something funny on your mind Alex?" Mario asks, his eyes tilted to the right as he holds the iGadd up to his face. "Oh nothing. Its just that if you tried to sell this device on Earth, you'd definitely be hit with a lawsuit." "Oh? Someone already made something like this? Well darn, and here I thought I was being original..." Distraught by the fact that his idea had already been used by someone else, E. Gadd takes his mind off the subject by telling Mario that he should take a quick look at the map. Complying to that request, the plumber follows the professor's instructions to the letter by touching the screen and moving his fingers over to the 3-D globe, which instantly causes a zoom-in of a forest that lies just north of Toad Town to pop up, with a blinking green dot deep within it indicating the apparent location of the first temple, as the Professor is quick to point out.

"What is this place?" Mario asks with his head lifted up to look right at E. Gadd's own eyes as he waits patiently for an answer. "Its not surprising that you don't recognize it. Only a few select people who have ever dared to trek through the Osagi Woods have actually managed to leave it alive. The place was also commonly nicknamed the 'Forever Forest' in the past before the Boos trademarked it for their own forest. Even so, its not like the name doesn't still hold any water. You could walk for months on end and still never find a ray of light to guide you out." From the way the Professor describes the place, its no wonder that Alex finds himself feeling a bit concerned. "Umm...And you expect us to walk through it without any guidance? I know Mario has dealt with mazes in the past, but none of them have ever been given a legend to them like the one you are referring to." Alex says while nervously wiggling his pointer finger near the left side of his head and scrunching his forehead slightly.

"Ohohohoho, trust me when I say this, I would never send you somewhere without at least a hint on what to do. Luckily for you both, the tablet also gave a hint as to how to traverse the place. _'From within the thicket of trees you'll see petals of blue, listen to what they have to say and the path shall be held true.' _" "Petals of blue..." Having paid the most attention to the hint that E. Gadd translated from the text, Mario rubs his chin in thought for a moment to make sure he has it all memorized, and upon doing so he moves his arms down to the sides of his body and does one nod of his head. "Got it." He says to finish his previous sentence. "So hang on a moment..." Alex says as he takes the iGadd out of the plumbers grasp and takes a nice long look at it and squints his eyes to look at the tiny text on the upper left corner of the dot. With it appearing as a blur to him, the boy lifts his head up to to ask the professor about it, at the same time adjusting his vision back to normal with a couple blinks of the eyelids.

"What does it say on here?" Holding the device out in front of his body with all five fingers wrapped around the sides, the professor has to give his glasses a slight nudge in order to better see it. "Ah, that's the name of the first location, the Nature Castle. If you are having a hard time seeing it, I'll make certain to increase the font size for the later names." "Alright, that would be nice." With his mission accomplished, Alex hands the device back to Mario and formally apologizes to him for yanking the device out like he did, to which the hero is quick to forgive him for, stating that its no big deal before tucking the iGadd into one of his overalls pockets. "Well, I guess we shall be off then. Don't want to waste any time now do we?" With Mario bringing up a good point, Alex nods his head in agreement, and the two of them depart from the lab after saying their goodbyes and thanks to E. Gadd.

Once they've both climbed the stairway back into the town, the plumber pulls out the device quickly and heads back to the main menu with a push of a the onscreen "Back" button. There, he scans everything over to checks all the options, and is visibly disappointed to find that there is no G.P.S. function on here. "Hmm, so once we go deep into the woods we won't be able to get out unless we follow the hint E. Gadd gave us to find our way back." "We won't get lost then in that case, right?" Alex responds with his arms held behind his head, which is turned to face Mario as he puts the iGadd away. "Of course." Gliding his right hand across the bottom of his nose, the plumber curls it into a fist and pops his thumb up. "Now, lets a-go!" With his signature catchphrase now uttered, the two heroes head out across the northern part of town until they've arrived in front of Peach's Castle once more. This time around though, they walk across the bridge to the right so they can better get around the castle and reach the plethora of trees lurking behind it, A.K.A., the entrance to the Osagi Woods.

It takes five minutes for the two of them to move across the grasslands separating the two areas, but once they reach their destination they are able to get a better, up close and personal look at the two-story high wooden plants. Most of them are covered with crisp red and gold-brown colored leaves, but there a few cherry blossom trees here and there along with some blue rose filled bushes on the ground to add a little variety to the scenery. With the sunlight peaking gently through the cracks between the leaves, Alex and Mario both feel a sense of serenity as they actually enter the woods themselves. "No wonder people get lost in here. If I lived my entire life surrounded by an environment this enchanting, why would I ever have any motivation to leave?" "While I agree with what you are saying, we still have to be on our guard." Mario says as he moves over to the bushes and kneels down to examine them.

"Well duh, now that we've started this adventure I know we are going to encounter enemies both new and old. But for some reason, that only fills me with anticipation. Speaking of which, why are you checking those bushes out?" Alex asks with his head tilted slightly to the right and his eyes filled with confusion. "Just following up on E. Gadd's hint. But I don't think it was referring to these bushes..." As Mario gets back up, he turns his head around and sees that these particular bushes only exist in this part of the forest, with no others being visible for yards on end. "So we should try looking for another type of flower is what you are getting at, correct?" The boy asks. "Right." The plumber says as he turns his head to the right to glance over at Alex.

But before they can before an investigation of the immediate area, the two heroes hear a faint ruffling sound coming from some normal looking bushes nearby. As they turn to look at it, they both sense that they are being watched. Being the first to want to check the bush out, Mario extends his left arm out while putting his right pointer finger to his lips and going "Shhh..." before he begins to gently tiptoe over to the bush to see just who might be spying on them. As he dips his hands into the leaves and begins to push them aside, something jumps out through the hole he just made and knocks Mario to the ground with a sharp leaf pointed at his neck. The creature is revealed to be a Crayzee Dayzee that's roughly as tall the plumber, with a body made entirely out of vines, and blue petals surrounding its yellow head with beady black eyes glaring down at his enemy as a scowl is marked across his face.

"Who are you and why have you come to this forest? Answer quickly or I'll remove that pudgy head of yours from your shoulders!" As the flower speaks in a loud, brash tone of voice, Alex runs forward and jumps into the air to kick him in the face, sending him flying back into the bush that he came out of and giving Mario enough time to get back on his feet. "What the heck was that?" The boy blurts out with his heart racing as he lands on the ground. "That was a Crayzee Dayzee...I think." The plumber responds while scratching the top of his hat with his left fingers. "Its body structure was different, that's for certain. Well, I suppose this only goes with the whole 'Going to encounter new enemies' thing you had brought up. Good thing you got him before he managed to end me."

Underestimating the strength of their opponent, the two heroes are forced into their battle stances when the Crayzee Dayzee leaps out of the bush with his leaf blade brandished out at them. "Do you value your lives invaders? Then thou must be wary to avoid cockiness in the face of your enemy, for in the span of two-thousand years have nary a warrior succeeded in bringing harm to ye woods!" With the warrior now lapsing into an over-the-top medieval accent, Alex can't help but chuckle. "Hehehe, you might be trying a bit too hard there little guy. Besides, I don't think you used 'Ye' correctly." For a moment, the flower lowers his weapon and leans the back of his left vine arm against his chin. "Really? I didn't think anyone would recognize the accent, since the times of its use have long since passed. I mean, I just wanted to try something new for o-Hey wait a minute, what am I doing conversing with the enemy? On guard fiends!"

After calmly speaking to the two heroes for one sentence, the flower lifts his weapon back up and leaps right at them. With one cut through the air, he succeeds at clipping off a few hairs on Mario's mustache as the plumber pulls back to avoid the attack. Once the Crayzee Dayzee has landed on the ground, Mario leans back and places his hands on the ground for support as he spins himself to try and kick his foe. But the warrior plants his blade in the ground to block both of the plumber's feet, though this leaves him vulnerable to a right hook across the jaw by Alex. Without any bones in its face to break though, the attack doesn't really have a lasting impact on the flower as he adjusts his head back to its normal position and back flips off the ground to avoid a fireball flung from Mario's right hand.

While in the air, the flower thrusts its left vine arm out and wraps it around Alex's gut, extended some thorns out to make sure his limb stays attached to the boy's body. Not wanting to have them puncture his skin in fear of poison being on the tips, the boy has no choice but to remain motionless as Mario rushes in to fight the Crayzee Dayzee in close combat once it lands on the ground. Thinking that the flower's sword is probably delicate considering what its made out of, the plumber throws all of his strength into his right fist as he thrusts it out in front of his face. Catching him coming at him from the corner of his eyes, the flower raises his weapon just like Mario predicted that he would. However, once his knuckles make contact with the dull side of the blade, the plumber is surprised to find that he is unable to even crack it.

"Hmm?" Mario says with a raised eyebrow. "Impressed? ...No wait, I don't want to hear any compliments from the enemy!" "Why do you think that we are your enemies?" The plumber asks in a calm tone of voice as he lets up on his punch and stands completely still. The flower warrior puts the tip of his sword back near his neck and is just about ready to make him pay for his withdrawal when he sees a good point being brought up by the "invaders" question. Scrunching his face up all serious-like and twisting his head to the left, the flower curls his lower lip as he tries to come up with the next thing to say. "Very well then, answer me honestly then...Why ARE you here?" Without flinching and without any hesitation, Mario comes up with an answer once he takes a quick look at the warrior's petals "Me and my friend here are going through these woods to search for the Nature Castle. We were given a hint by a friend of ours that we'd be able to find our way there if we listened to someone with blue petals on them. I'm sorry if you think that we are intruding, but we honestly have no intention of harming the forest."

Though he is listening in to what the plumber has to say, the flower is mainly paying attention to his associate, making sure that his muscles never tense up from nervousness, for that would alert him that the story being spoken to him is nothing more than a lie. After a few seconds of complete silence, the Crayzee Dayzee gently retracts his right vine from around Alex and with a flick of the wrist the leaf on his other arm magically disappears. Afterwards, he bows his head and looks at the two heroes with a small grin on his face. "Forgive me for my rashness. I've been guarding the area from evildoers for two millennium, so its not like I expected to meet any of you heroic types around here." "Wait a moment...Two-thousand years?" Alex says after breathing a heavy sigh of relief and walking back to Mario's side. "If you don't mind me asking, just who or what are you?"

"I can gladly answer that. My name is Driadius Carnation Aloevera Liondande the First. But obviously that will be hard to remember, so you can just call me Driad. I'm the guardian of the Nature Castle, which by extension means the rest of the forest as well, and I'm assuming since you've seen the tablet to know of its existence in the first place I can tell you this one other detail. I was created by the very Elemental Overlord himself." Greatly surprised by the flower's revelation, Mario and Alex lean forward with their eyes wide open and their jaws dropped as low as physically possible to greater emphasize the shock they are experiencing. "Whoa...So that means you know everything there is to know about the seven temples. That's incredible!" The boy says, with a grin becoming all the more obvious as the seconds pass on by.

"Nope! Sorry to ruin your mood there...Umm, darn it, I don't know either of your guys' names yet." Regaining their composure rather quickly, Mario and Alex both raise themselves back up and shake their heads rapidly before nervously rubbing the back of their heads. "Slipped our minds, what with you doing most of the talking and all. My name is Alex Whiter." "And I shouldn't have to introduce myself, you should have heard of me before." As Mario does a humble cough with his fist in front of his mouth, Driad tilts his head and raises his eyes up as he tries to think about who this mysterious plumber may be. In an instant, he comes up with an answer. "Never heard of you before in my life." The response of which causes both Mario and Alex to fall flat on their faces with their arms outstretched. "Umm...I don't think that is good for your health..." Driad says in an overly innocent tone of voice.

After picking themselves up off the ground, Mario spends the next six minutes explaining about just who he is and what he does in the Mushroom Kingdom. Once all is said and done, Driad crosses his arms in front of his chest and mumbles to himself as he takes all that info in. "...Nope, sorry, still don't know you. And just what is a Bowser? Is it some type of giant flaming dog?" Just plain giving up on trying to explain things to this unknowing flower, Mario decides to switch back to the subject of Driad's role in being the so-called guardian of the Nature Castle. "Ok ok, so if you don't know about the other temples, then how far does your knowledge extend out to?" "Well, I know how to get to the Nature Castle and move through it to get to the stone, but my use to you extends far beyond just being a tour guide. I'm a capable enough fighter, having been at it since long before either of you've been born. Plus, the Overlord told me before he left here that it is my solemn duty to help people like you on your journey to gather the seven Elemental Stones. Now, you don't have to accept my help if you don't want to, I won't be insulted if you say no."

As Driad folds his arms behind his back and patiently whistles to himself, Mario and Alex go off to the side to think about his offer. "What do you say Mario? Its your judgment call on this one, seeing as you are the leader and what-not." The boy is the first to whisper. The plumber folds his arms underneath his chin and tilts his head as he begins to think about any possible consequences of letting Driad join up with them. On one hand, the flower's heart does seem to be in the right place, and if he really was a villain he already had two opportunities to kill the both of them that he never took. On the second hand though, he did seem a bit rash, which could prove to be problematic should they encounter an enemy too powerful for them to handle. But at the end of his train of thought, Mario can only think of one possible conclusion.

As he turns himself around and walks over to the flower, he extends one hand out and says "We'd be glad to have you come with us Driad." in the friendliest tone that he can muster. "Awesome!" The Crayzee Dayzee excitedly blurts as he claps his hands out in front of him before taking his right one and enthusiastically shaking Mario's hand. When Alex walks over to him, they do the same handshake. "You won't regret this, I can promise you that. By the way, I have to ask Mario...Why were you looking at the Imitation Roses? Don't you know that they are poisonous?" Driad's sudden comment causes the plumber to go into a panic, as he waves his arms frantically beside him and gets horrible flashbacks to the time he was inflicted with Bean Fever. "...You do realize I'm joking, right?" The flower quickly points out upon worrying about the way his new friend was acting. This causes Mario to stop and breathe a sigh of relief. "But seriously, be careful. You can't just look all willy nilly at these plants. That being said, we should probably get moving so we are done before the daylight runs out. Once it becomes nighttime, even I can't ensure that we will be able to find our way out." With that rather ominous comment, the three heroes turn towards the deeper part of the forest and begin their trek towards the Nature Castle.

_Next Time: More Than One Guardian?_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Ghoul of the Garden**

By following Driad's helpful directions, the heroes eventually find themselves within the deeper part of the woods, and the sunlight begins to vanish as the leaves become both darker and thicker in shape. At the same time, Mario starts to see large claw marks on the twisted, thorny roots coming out of the ground around them. "...Say, Driad?" The plumber says to get his attention, to which he stops in place and turns around to answer him, almost causing Alex to run into him at the same time. "Yes?" The flower responds. "What kind of beasts inhabit this forest anyways?" "Boos-" "Oh, well that's not so bad." Alex is quick to point out before his new friend has even finished, which Driad reacts to by glaring at him from over his left shoulder. Once his head turns back around, he adds on by saying "-and Wolves." Completely unconcerned by what was just said, Mario keeps a calm demeanor as he rubs the bottom of his chin and gives that info some thought.

Understandably though, Alex is a bit unhinged by that. "Wolves? Are you kidding? That is definitely a bit too high level for this point in time! I'm not doubting our own strengths at all, mind you, but for us to try and beat a vicious pack of creatures such as them? That's ludicrous!" "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it at all Alex." Driad says, turning himself around to face the boy with an assuring smile on his face. "For as long as I can remember, every last wolf in this forest has respected me. So long as you guys stick around me, you won't get attacked." "Huh, well..." After hearing that, Alex wipes every last drop of sweat from his forehead with a brush of his left hand. "That's a relief..." He says from under his breath.

"How come the wolves respect you Driad?" Mario inquires. "Dunno." The flower dryly states with a shrug of his shoulders. "If I had to take a guess though, its probably because of my longevity." "Fair enough point." The plumber retorts. "See, this is why its a good thing I came across you guys...Or would that be the other way around?" Shifting from a raise of his right hand to placing it underneath his chin and pondering what he just brought up for a moment before catching himself and returning to talking about his importance. "Anyways...You see, its not that this forest is particularly hard to navigate. No, its really easy to do so so long as you avoid the sun deprived parts. What really gets people lost is when the wolves catch a whiff of their scents and begin to chase them into the darker parts that the problem arises. Either the person gets eaten alive or by the time they lose the beasts because I'm in the area, they end up never finding their way out because they'll have gone in too deep. I may not have wandered into your "Toad Town" at all, but I do remember in the past that the villagers sent criminals into this forest as a form of execution. Usually with a promise that if they could make it to the other side they would be allowed to go free. To my best of knowledge not a single one sent here ever succeeded for the reasons I just brought to your attention."

"That's...HORRIBLE." With Alex expressing his utter disgust at what Driad just said, his body shudders as he turns his head around and notices a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at him through the shadows. "Is one of them looking at you Alex?" Driad asks upon noticing his friend's current posture. "Yeah..." The boy responds with his muscles tightened out of fear. "Hang on, it probably doesn't see me because you are in the way." As he speaks the flower walks around Alex until he is front of him, and Mario follows him while pulling on the lip of his left glove on the off chance that he has to end up fighting. "Wait a second..." As Driad leans his head out slightly, he sees a the faint glow of the inside of the creature's mouth and with only two teeth being clearly visible to him he comes to the following conclusion. "...That's not wolf. In fact, its something else entirely."

"So can I attack it?" Mario asks with his head tilted towards the flower. "I'd advise against it, since we don't know what we are up against." Despite the appearance of a different enemy than expected, Alex relaxes himself and lets a light breath out as he presses his left hand against his chest and leans forward a bit. "Well, so long as it isn't a blood thristy monster, then I don't really care!" Having gotten himself back together, the boy leaps over Driad and flies at the shadows with his left foot held out in front of his body. Just before he can hit the mysterious observer though, it lets out a ruffled sounding cackle and slinks back, causing Alex to slam the sole of his shoe into the side of a tree that just so happened to be there. Without any of his bones broken, the boy kicks himself off of the wood and flips himself around so he is standing on the ground once more. Puzzled by whatever the heck just happened, Alex turns around and walks back over to the other two heroes with his eyelids slanted upwards.

"O...kay?" Is all he can bring himself to say. "Hmmm...That was certainly a Boo that was watching us just now." Mario quickly realizes as he aims one of his pointer fingers at the thicket of trees in front of them. "Worse than that, I think that was the outside guardian of the Nature Castle." Driad says with a serious look on his face. "Come again? Outside guardian?" Snapping out of his confusion, both Alex and Mario take note of the what just said. "Yes, the Outside Guardians. I don't know what any of them look like, but I do remember that there is one guarding the entrance to every temple. Makes sense that one of them is making their presence known to us now, seeing as we aren't that far away from the Nature Castle at this point." "And this one just so happens to have the appearance of a creature native to this world?" Mario asks. "I..I guess so." Noticing the hesitation in Driad's voice along with the sudden drooping of his arms, the plumber decides to push the flower slightly in regards to the guardians.

"Driad, I don't think you are telling us the full story here, are you?" He says with one eyebrow raised. "I've already told you everything I know. If you don't believe me though..." The flower turns himself towards Mario and looks him straight in the eyes. "Look into my eyes and see for yourself if I'm telling the truth." Seeing as he is not exactly an expert at analyzing whether someone is lying or not via looking at their eyes, the plumber figures that if the flower is willing to go that far, then he must be being honest. "No...That won't be necessary. Sorry for having any doubts." Mario says with a grin and a nod, to which the flower returns with a cheeky grin of his own. "Its ok, but I really do wish I knew more about the guardians myself, otherwise I could've said more about them." Driad says in an apologetic tone. "Hold up a moment now." Alex interrupts with one hand raised and another one pressed against his forehead.

"How are we going to beat this Boo when it actually decides to confront us?" "Well, since the usual method of 'Staring at it to keep it from moving' isn't going to work, I guess we are just going to have to fight it...Well, normally. Its not like I haven't ever had a chance to punch a Boo in the face before." At the end of his sentence, Mario has his arms held out in front of his body with his fingers wiggling about, only for him to fold his limbs back in front of his chest soon after. "True. Oh well, guess we better get moving. Besides, I'm starting to feel a bit uneasy, like a wolf really IS looking at us right now." "Alright then. Follow me..." After Driad acknowledges Alex's concerns, the heroes continue on their way. Not long after, they find that only pin sized rays of light are coming through the trees now. Luckily for them, the path is being lit by a few glowing tulip bulbs.

"So how exactly are these bulbs able to function in this environment?" Mario inquires. "Beats me. I don't explore this part of the woods very often, so I haven't been able to witness the process that they undergo in order to give off that luminescence." "Perhaps the Elemental Overlord had something to do with it?" Alex interjects. "That could be true, I wouldn't know...Hey, can you guys hold on for a moment?" All of a sudden, Driad runs over to mound of dirt with a lone rose resting on top of it. The flower gets on his knees and gently brushes the top of the mound with the tip of his right vine, then after laying both arms down against the top of his legs. "..." Closing his eyelids, the flower begins to reminisce. Mario and Alex give him a few seconds to himself before they walk over to see what is up. "An old friend of yours Driad?" The plumber asks.

"No. Its the grave site of one of those criminals I mentioned earlier." "You buried them?" Alex asks, a hint of surprise being heard in his voice. "Yes." "But why? They were bad people, don't you know that?" As Driad opens his eyes and stands back up, he looks at the nearby tree and responds to Mario's question with the following. "Maybe so, but that doesn't mean that they deserved the fate that they were dealt. Forcing one to suffer without hope before they die...I would never do that to anyone. At the very least, by burying them here I allowed them to, in a way, redeem themselves by having them give back to the forest...Anyways, lets move on!" Reverting back to his cheerful self faster than you could say "Corn Bread", the other two heroes merely shrug their shoulders at Driad's behavior and continue on their way.

"How much longer do you say it'll take for us to get there?" Alex inquires, the impatience in his voice being as clear as day. "Just a couple more minutes. If you are bored Alex, you could always indulge in the sights." "Its almost pitch black in here!" The boy angrily retorts to Driad's response. "Sorry..." The flower says as his body flinches slightly. Turning his head back around to face the way in front of him, Driad slightly raises his hands into the air and rolls his eyes around. "Just trying to be helpful here..." He then mumbles. "Mario, if I may ask." Alex says, trying to start a conversation with the plumber in order to cure his boredom. "Hmm?" The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom murmurs with his head turned towards the boy. "Do you have any plans to use your suits during this adventure? You know, Hammer, Tanooki, Fire Flower, etc.?"

"Depends on the situation I guess, but no, I don't really have a reason to use them. Why do you ask?"

"Well, its just that..." Alex swings his arm over his head, followed up by flinging it out in front of his body. "I was hoping to see how you use them first hand. Plus, I just wanted to see how prepared you were, that's all." "Well, that's fine and dandy Alex, but its not like power-ups are easy to come by. ESPECIALLY the Hammer and Tanooki suits. Those only exist in the seven lands of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the Hammer one in particular is the rarest of them all. I mean, its not like there is a tree that just drops these power-ups now is there?" "Yeah, just imagine...A tree that drops nothing but Tanooki leaves!" "And Bowser would have Kamek conjure up a storm to blow those leaves away so he could give them to his army and himself!" After thinking for a moment about the ridiculousness of that idea, both Mario and Alex burst into laughter, their arms flailing about as they try their hardest to contain themselves. Driad, having no clue about ANYTHING that they were just talking about, just stops and turns around, slanting his jaw slightly while his eyes look on in utter bewilderment.

"Al...right then? We made it guys, if you want to see for yourself." With their composure soon regained, the three heroes walk forward through the bushes and finally return to a more lighted area. In front of them is a the entrance to the Nature Castle, whose decaying stone walls have been covered with moss and vines, effectively concealing it from people who'd come into this area from the sides. The circular portion of ground in front of it is devoid of any grasses or flowers, and the trees surrounding it prevent anyone from looking at the temple in full. Cautiously walking forward, Driad stops in place once he catches something out of the corner of his on one of the trees to the left of him. "Huh?" Rushing over to the tree, he finds that the bark has been torn apart by what look to be a pair of wolf claws. Even more disturbing is the fact that there are traces of dried up blood on the edge of the marks, and after taking one step forward to examine it closer he ends up feeling a couple of bones rubbing up against the bottom of his foot.

"Could some of the wolves come here? That...No, that can't be...No one has ever managed to make it out here, they would've needed my help to do so...So how-" "Hey Driad, did you find something interesting over there?" Mario's sudden calling out to him causes the flower to nervously shuffle his foot around to bury the bones underneath a few fallen leaves. He then turns himself around and keeps his face as emotionless as possible so the plumber doesn't detect anything wrong with him. "Not at all, seems I was seeing things." He says as he joins back up with the two heroes and they continue on towards the entrance. "How odd. Shouldn't that 'Outside Guardian' be here to try and stop us?" Alex asks. "Perhaps he got lost trying to get back?" The plumber responds. "Could be, but I'd still be on guard just in case." Driad replies.

As they get closer and closer, the heroes start to tip-toe so they don't accidentally trigger a trap on the ground. But with their attention fully put into being cautious, they are unaware of the evil creeping up on them from within the confines of the temple. With them being only a few feet away, three gigantic Pirahna Plant heads lunge out at the heroes and force them to instinctively jump back to avoid being eaten. The veins on the plant's heads are throbbing, and as they continue to snarl their teeth ooze with acidic saliva. After a few more seconds, however, the creature's heads collapse into the vines from whence they came, and they in turn slink back into the dark passageway. The owner of these vines, the lime-green Boo that the heroes encountered earlier, floats out with his eyes closed and a ridiculously high-pitched laugh coming from its mouth. Wrapped around both its stubby hands are the vines it just used to scare her heroes with.

**Phantasm of the Flowers: Synth Spirit**

Wasting no time after his frightening introduction, the Boo becomes intangible and sinks into the ground, leaving behind an ethereal portal for a second in the process. After a few seconds, the heroes feel the ground rumbling beneath and each perform a back flip as the ghost flies out of the ground with five beanstalks trailing out of the ground behind him to create a wall that blocks the way to the temple. With his first job done, the ghost sinks down so the bottom of his body is nearly at ground level. He then spits a few seeds out of his mouth that plant themselves into the ground and grow into three miniature doppelgangers of himself, which then float themselves in a ring around the creature's body. After all the ghosts laugh at the same time, they become invisible and charge forward.

Unable to see their enemy, Alex and Driad jump into the air under the false assumption that the ghost planned on running through them. As it turns out though, the creature only moved a couple of inches, and anticipated the heroes reactions ahead of time. He then orders his little ones to send their vines out and grab Driad by the legs, while he himself does the same to Alex. Once they have been tightly wrapped around at the kneecaps, they use their strength to slam the two heroes back first against the ground. The cloud of dust that pops up afterward reveals to Mario the ghost's outline, and before his friends can get attacked he rushes forward and slams his fist right into its body. To his surprise though, the Boo has a rather gelatinous form, and it seems his attack has done little damage to it.

It did, however, cause the tiny Boos to turn their heads around and stop raising Driad, which gives the Crayzee Dayzee enough time to change his right arm into his leafy sword and cut both himself and Alex free. With their freedom secured, the boy flies forward and performs a drop kick on the Boo while he is still somewhat visible, only for his foot to sink slightly into the body until he decides to pull back and land next to Driad. "We can't harm him?" The flower points out as he turns his arm back to normal. "Seems not." Mario says as he tries two more punches with an equal amount of success as the last one. The Boos retaliate by creating thorns on their arms and begin spinning around to try and ram into the plumber.

Not surprisingly, their actions only end up making it easier for the heroes to see where its at, for the rotation of its body creates a ring underneath it thanks to the dirt flying up around it. Thus Mario jumps over the Boo and comes down hard onto its head. This time around he bounces high into the air with the creature acting as a trampoline. Turns out though that the plumber saw this coming, and as he grabs onto one of the nearby tree branches with one hand he turns his body sideways and shoots three fireballs from the palm of his left hand. The attacks hit the tiny Boos dead on, their flammable vines proving to be their downfall as they burn to cinders. Seeing the deaths of what he considered to be his offspring, the spirit is thrown into a fit of rage as he detracts his thorns and sinks back into the ground.

After three seconds he rises up underneath Mario with a massive Pirahna Plant head following him. The plumber leaps off and lands on the ground as the carnivorous creature chomps down on the stick he was just on and converts itself into soil when the ghost sees no further use for it. The Boo repeats the process and this time around targets the lone Driad, who jumps up and sends out a sharp leaf with a swing of his right arm that cleaves the Pirahna Plant in two down the center. After doing this, the flower notices that half of the Boo is currently visible, with a ray of sunlight peaking through the leaves behind the part of the ghost that can be seen. Before he can make note of this to his friends though, the spirit sprints towards him and bites down onto his chest, proceeding to then slam him down onto the ground and using the vines on his left arm to constrict the Crayzee Dayzee against it. It prepares to finish him off by jamming a jagged root through his head, when Alex runs towards him and spin kicks him right in the face with enough force that he is forced to let go of Driad as he is sent flying towards Mario, who punches the ghost in the back with his right hand and delivers a flame empowered uppercut to its gut with the other.

While the overall wearing Italian man does all he can to try and determine the ghost's weakness, Alex rips off a piece of bark from one of the trees and gets ready to jam the sharpest part into the vines wrapped around Driad, only for the flower to cut himself loose with his leaf sword just like he did earlier. He then gets on his feet and looks at the boy, who disappointingly tosses the bark off to the side and folds his arms in front of his chest. "You ok Driad?" He asks. "A little shooken up, but fine otherwise." The flower responds while the punctured parts of his chest heal up. "You can regenerate?" Alex says out of surprise towards his friend's ability. "So long as my head doesn't sustain too much damage, yeah." Driad states as he taps one of his vines against his forehead. They both then turn and look at Mario, who is continuing his assault without giving the ghost any chance to fight back.

"Mario seems to be fairing well, but shall we give him a hand?" Alex says in a rather casual tone. "No, we got to expose the creature's weakness...I figured it out." "Really now? What is it?" The boy asks. "This might sound crazy..." Alex scoffs at Driad's comment. "And everything in this world isn't already?" "...Anyways, I think the Boo has converted its texture and mass so it resembles that of a Chloroplasts'. By doing that, he has lowered his visibility and density to a such a level that it makes it very hard to hit him, and even if he were to get hit he couldn't possibly suffer any damage. However, because he has become what he has, the very act of being exposed to sunlight causes his water molecules to be split apart into hydrogen and oxygen atoms, where the hydrogen ones then combine with carbon dioxide in the air to make glucose, and in turn forces him to revert back to a more solid form so it can release it from its body."

Seeing as he isn't exactly the brightest one around, it takes a moment for Alex to understand everything just said to him. Then, in a moment of brilliance, he realizes something about Driad's info that fits in with the Boo's appearance. "So that's why it is colored the way he is! And here I thought it was because it was just going along with the theme of the temple its guarding." The flower agrees with a nod of the head, and then mentions one more thing. "That would also explain why he summoned those beanstalks before the battle began. It serves two purposes. One, it prevents us from getting in. And two, it prevents most of the sunlight from getting in, thus removing the one thing that makes him vulnerable." After taking things into consideration, the Crayzee Dayzee rubs the bottom of his chin as a smirk appears on his face. "For a speechless Boo, he certainly has thought things through."

With the info gathered, Alex puts his hands out beside his mouth and hollers out to Mario. "Hey Mario! You hear all that?" At that very moment, the plumber has the Boo held in the grasp of his two hands. He flings him against the ground and kicks his feet out rapidly to continuously bounce the creature against it while at the same time slowing his descent. The Boo is laughing all the way, just to taunt his opponents. "Yeah, I-a got it!" Mario responds. "What is the plan of action then?" He then asks as there seems to be visible signs of sweat appearing on his forehead, a result of expending so much energy to keep the ghost at bay. "You need to burn down the beanstalks so the sunlight can expose the ghost!" Driad yells out. At that very moment, the Boo's laughter completely stops, as he begins to panic over how the heroes have figured his weakpoint out.

Desperate to try and avert this, the spirit stops letting himself get hit by Mario and sinks into the ground, using his powers to send vines grinding across the surface of the ground towards Alex and Driad. As they lash out to take them out, the Crayzee Dayzee uses his sword to cut one down, while the boy punches the other one with enough force that it is split down the center, thus allowing him to avoid being harmed. Of course, it seems in his urgency to take the heroes down, the ghost has forgotten that its not the two he is facing that he needs to worry about, but the overall wearing Italian man. For at that very moment, he is flinging fireball after fireball to burn a hole through the beanstalks in front of the temple. With their stability compromised, gravity takes hold and forces them down onto the ground. Mario catches one of them in the palm of his right hand and turns it to ashes by summoning forth a fireball.

With that first step out of the way, Driad uses his vines to break apart the ground where he suspects the ghost might be, his actions spreading around dirt and exposing his target for Alex to then deal with. The boy rushes forward and punts the Boo in the face, sending him flying towards Mario, who turns around and grabs him by his little tail and swings him around so he is caught up in the sunlight and forced to revert to his more solidified state. The plumber then slams the ghoul against the ground, his body not rebounding this time around. "Sorry, looks like we win." With his victory now assured, Mario lets go of the Boo and quickly tosses a fireball at it to ignite the vines surrounding it, which in turn continuously damages the creature as it too is set on fire. Struggling to put the flames out as it rises into the air and rapidly spins its body around, his pained cackle fills the air until it reaches a point where he stays frozen in place and his charred body crumbles into ashes that float gently onto the ground in front of Mario.

Satisfied with the results, the plumber claps his hands together to remove the soot from his gloves before giving his signature two-finger peace sign with his right hand. Alex and Driad walk up beside him and the three heroes exchange hand claps before they look down at the ashes. "Well, that was easy. Though for a mini-boss, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The first boss should prove to be more of a challenge." Raising an eyebrow about Alex's statement, Mario turns his head a few degrees to the right and says "This isn't an RPG Alex." To which the boy responds with "Well, I suppose you were right. I guess it was just my inner geek slipping out a bit. I'll try to keep it at a minimum from now on." With a smile on his face, Alex looks on towards the temple entrance. "Now, are we certain that another ghost isn't going to come out and scare us?" He asks. "Nope!" Driad bluntly and happily states. "Yeah...That's what I thought." With nothing else noteworthy to bring up, the heroes cautiously take their first steps into the Nature Castle...

_Next Time: What does Driad really know?_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Across the Gentle Blades**

With the battle against the Synth Spirit all said and done, the heroes have now entered the Nature Castle. Not an impressive piece of architecture by any means, the signs of age are pretty obvious, from the multiple cracks in the ceiling where moss has become abundant to the decaying brimstone on the floors on which they stand. Worst of all, none of the torches have been lit, which means that logically, there should be no way for them to be able to see any of the dangers that the temple has in store for them. Of course, with Mario's fire powers, he is able to grab the bottom of one of the many wooden sticks and ignite its top to give them some better lighting.

"Thanks for that Mario." Driad says, batting his eyelids a few times as his vision adjusts to the incoming luminosity. "Yep, definitely better." As the plumber takes the lead, he gives the Crayzee Dayzee a quick thumbs up before holding the torch out in front of his body, swaying it left and right to increase the radius a bit just to be on the safe side. Oddly enough, there seem to be no signs of enemy activity. "Hmm..." Moving his body back into a neutral stance, Mario has but one thing to say. "Lets-a go!" Even though he said one of his catchphrases with confidence, the plumber was certainly going to stay on guard as they all made their way through the temple corridors.

"Say, I got to bring this up real quick." Alex says. "Yes?" Mario responds with his head tilted to the left. "Heh, no offense to you Mario, but this one is directed towards Driad." The boy says in a somewhat apologetic tone. With his friend wishing to address him, the Crayzee Dayzee turns his head to look at him, curious as to what he has to say. "Alright, lay it on me Alex. What's on your mind?" "Why are the stone locations referred to as temples in the prophecy tablet even though this location is called the Nature Castle?" "That's easy to answer. Did you know that one of the definitions for temple is 'A place devoted to a special purpose'?" "Actually, that did manage to slip my mind..." Alex humbly admits.

"Ok then. With that said, obviously it didn't matter to the Elemental Overlord if they were actual temples or not, so long as the locations fit the theme of the stones." "Makes sense to me, thank you Driad." The boy responds with a pleasant nod. "No problem." The flower grins. After a few more steps forward, the heroes reach a staircase with nary trap being sprung nor an enemy ambushing them from the walls. "How odd. I would've at least expected some vines bursting from the ceiling...Or perhaps some member of your kin wandering around to get in our way." Alex says, his second statement being directed towards Driad, who is gazing at the wall to the right of him and sees the exact same type of claw marks he saw on the tree outside the temple.

"How could these be in here? I could understand these marks being seen on the trees in the forest, but there is no way that a wolf managed to get past the guardian with the abilities it had...Could it be that-" "Yo, Driad! You gonna just stare blankly at the wall for hours on end, or are you coming with us?" Alex calls out to the perplexed Crayzee Dayzee from inside the stairway, which breaks his train of thought and causes him to flinch unexpectedly. "Huh?" Taking a moment to realize what's going on, Driad turns around and rushes forward to catch up with his two companions, continuously apologizing for his inability to stay focused as they move on to the second floor. Before they reach the end, Alex musters up a response to the flower's overreacting.

"Driad, calm down, I don't know why you are acting like this, but its not necessary." "Alex is right." Mario interjects into the conversation, stopping in place and turning around to look down at other two. "Though your actions do beg the question as to why you stood motionless for a brief moment down there." The plumber's perceptiveness is noted almost instantly by Driad, as he raises his head up with a shocked looked in his eyes before dropping it back down and glancing to the left. "Do you guys think that someone or something else guarded the outer part of this temple before that Boo did?" The sudden mention of this theory causes the other two heroes to look at each other for a moment before they can come up with a response to the question. "What brought this up?" Mario asks, his desire to get the details being clear only to Alex.

"I saw some claw marks on the first floor's walls, and on one of the trees outside of here...The marks perfectly fit that of the wolves that wander around in the forest, but I pieced together all that I knew and came to the conclusion that it would be impossible for any of them to have been in here. Not only that, but there is no way that the ghost could've made those marks..." "Well it is possible that the ghost could've possessed one of the wolves and used it as a temporary body to overcome that one weakness it had." "Plausible, but I doubt it Mario...If that were the case I would've known." Based on the way that Driad paused before finishing his sentence, the plumber wonders if the flower is withholding info from them about the things he has seen. At the same time though, he can't help but trust his word on the matter.

"Well, maybe we will find an answer to your questions as we continue to traverse the temples. I can't permanently dispel your doubts Driad, but I will try my hardest to help you find whatever it is you need to overcome them." His spirits raised by Mario's kindhearted gesture, the Crayzee Dayzee raises his head and gives him a brimming smile. "Thank you Mario, I actually feel a bit better now. Now that I've managed to hold us up for long enough, let us get moving." "Mmm-hmm." The plumber responds with a nod. With that out of the way, the heroes eventually make it to the second floor, where they finally encounter the temple's first set of traps. Flailing around in front of them are a series of thorn covered vines, whose motions are so frantic that they leave very little room for the heroes to traverse through.

"About time. But I do wonder just how we are going to get through here..." As Alex examines the environment, Mario swings his torch at the vines, causing them to shriek and move back slightly, only to lash out and knock the flaming stick right out of the plumber's grasp. Despite it falling against the ground, it is not put out, and he picks it back up not a moment afterwards. "Can't really tell if they dislike fire or not..." "They probably do, but I don't think we should burn them down. I sense that there is a network of plants inside the walls that is keeping this place together. Don't want to start a chain reaction and have it all collapse upon us, right?" Driad is quick to point out, to which Mario agrees with a murmur and another nod. "You got any ideas then? Since you are the plant expert around here, I'll let you guide us through this part."

"Well golly..." The Crayzee Dayzee lightly blushes in the face of the overall wearing man's compliment, humbly swaying his body back and forth as his arms are tied up behind his back. "I wouldn't call myself an expert...Savvy perhaps, but even I'd have to admit that there are some things I probably don't know when it comes to botany..." Shaking his head quickly to pull himself together, Driad returns to a more serious demeanor as he wiggles one vine out in front of his face and keeps another one held at chin level as he deeply concentrates on the issue at hand. "One...two...five...ten...eighteen vines. That's how many there are. Now, there are two ways we can go about this." The Crayzee Dayzee swings his right arm around to summon his leaf sword. "One, you two run behind me as I go on ahead and swiftly cut the vines down one at a time. Or two, I can use my ultimate technique to clear them out in one shot. I'd say the second method would be better, cause who is to say that the vines won't hit us while I'm charging forward? Don't want to run the risk of the vines possibly being poisonous now do we?"

"I'd say so. But trust me, I think your 'ultimate technique' would be better left saved for a strong enemy or something." Alex says, trying to sway his friend towards the first plan of action he suggested, to which Driad complies to rather quickly. "Alright, then make sure to follow my pace...Cause here we go!" On his signal, the flower warrior charges forward and begins swinging his sword at the vines with the other two heroes running carefully behind him. The first seventeen vines go down with ease, but before the last one can be dealt with it retracts into the wall. "Huh..." Driad says as he turns his arm back to normal and lays it against the hole that the vines had originally poked out from. Sensing a 'heartbeat' of sorts coming from within that steadily becomes louder before it is suddenly silenced, the Crayzee Dayzee comes to a rather obvious conclusion.

"Doubt we have seen the last of this one...But for now, good job following my directions." He then turns around and extends his vines out, hoping for a handshake from his two friends, only to find that they have their heads turned towards the next part of the hallway. Driad does the same thing not a moment after noticing, and sees a massive gap filled with venom dripped spikes that rise up and down at various speeds and heights. "Huh, that doesn't seem like a problem..." Oblivious to the dangers probably because he knows something that the other two heroes don't, the flower walks forward and looks up at the ceiling, only to be disappointed by the lack of a branch to swing from. Wanting to make sure he isn't missing anything though, he take a long hard look into the spikes, and finds the composing remains of about three sticks lying around in the center.

"Well darn it..." He bemoans as he snaps his fingers and his two friends join him by his side. "What were you looking for Driad?" Alex asks. "I was thinking that I would be able to swing us across, but I guess that won't be possible..." The flower responds, a hint of sadness being heard in his voice. "Hmm..." The plumber is not dissuaded from advancing though, and he begins to examine the nearby walls for any signs of a pushable piece of stone or a crevice big enough for him to slip his fingers through. The torch he carries assist in his endeavor by burning down any moss and cobwebs that just so happen to be in his way. "There has to be some way around this pit in that case..." He quietly mentions. "Alex, check the other side. Driad, try the ground."

Agreeing to Mario's plan, the other two heroes get to work on finding a way through. Before even half a minute has passed, Driad feels a slight trembling coming from afar, which fades away before he can even ponder about it. "Hmm...Meh." The very moment he decides to forget about it though, it starts back up again, only this time they are more intense and sound like they are closer to the group then they were before. "Guys, you feel that?" He asks. "Somewhat...Why?" Mario responds, most of his focus being put into searching the wall. As if to quickly bring about an answer to the flower warrior's concerns, a gigantic vine erupts from the ground two hundred feet away from the heroes and lets out a bellowing shriek as it jabs its tip out towards them and begins to charge in their direction. This manages to catch Alex's attention, as he frantically waves his arms around and jumps behind the panicking Driad.

"What are you doing Alex?" The Crayzee Dayzee asks. "What do you think? I'm waiting for you to cut it down!" "ARE YOU KIDDING? With the abundance of fibers bundled together within that monstrosity, there is no way that I'll be able to stop its momentum! ESPECIALLY considering how cramped this hallway is!" "Found it!" Mario blurts out nonchalantly as he waves his torch out so the light radiating from it grabs the attention of his nervous comrades. Turning their shaking heads to the right, they find that the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom has managed to open up a passageway out of the immeadiate area. Hustling over to the safety that the passage provides, Mario closes the door right as the vine is about to pass through. Following their departure from the hallway is the sound of the spikes puncturing through the skin of the vine followed by a loud shriek that slowly loses its volume until it is suddenly silenced.

"Whew...Just barely made it." Driad says, his body excreting a golden-yellow gel as a replacement for the sweat that humans would normally release. "Huh?" Alex says, quickly noticing the substance and picking some of it off with the tip of his left pinky and raising it into his mouth to taste. In an instant the boy's eyes light up, as he feels as if he has regained all of his lost energy from his sweet tasting material. "Driad you taste delicious!" His sudden blurting out of his opinion causes the Crayzee Dayzee to twist his body around to look at him with a confused and somewhat worried look in his eyes, like he doesn't understand just why his friend said what he just did. "Whaaa?" It is at that moment that he notices the stuff coming out of his body. "Oh, so I'm sweating honey this time huh?" He says in a very unsurprised tone of voice.

"This time?" Mario asks out of curiosity. "Yeah..." The flower warrior grunts a bit and most of the honey is sucked back into his body, but not before Alex takes another drop for himself. "When I get either nervous or scared, my body alternates between sweating dew and honey. My honey actually has a special property to it that rejuvenates one's stamina upon consuming just a drop of it. Here Mario, have a taste." He extends one vine out, a medium sized drop of honey hanging at the tip for his friend to take. He politely refuses though, stating that he isn't at all tired at the moment, but that he will keep that info in mind just in case the need arises later on.

"So, how are we gonna get out of here once we've grabbed the stone? I'm not going to wait for the vine to rot in the hallway, we don't have a hundred years to spare after all...Well, Driad does, but that's beside the point." Alex says, to which Mario counters with "We will worry about that later. For now, we shall walk our way to the other side of this narrow passage." With that, the heroes continue on their way, the light on the plumber's torch now dimmer than it was before. After a minute of steady walking, they emerge from the wall on the opposite side of the spike pit, where Driad turns and sees that the vine only made it halfway across before the venomous obstacles led to its downfall. Despite its wild desire to stop them in their tracks, the flower can't help but stop for a moment and fold his hands in front of his chest to pray for the plant to rest in peace.

After that, he turns around and quickly catches up with his two friends as they begin to ascend the nearby spiraling staircase. This time, neither Mario nor Alex question what kept him, and the trek to the next floor is both quick and quiet. Once there, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom tosses the torch away, for the wide-open area is being perfectly lit by the sunlight coming in through six windows on each wall. With moss covered pillars keeping the ceiling up, at the very end of the room is a decaying leaf covered stone throne that dwarfs them in size. With it being the most prominent landmark in the room, Alex runs out to go check it out, with Mario and Driad slowly following behind him. The plumber has his arms in front of his chest as he finds the situation to be rather...Suspicious.

"Something isn't right...Driad, do you sense anymore plants around here?" "Nope, its all calm as far as the eye can see. Even the ground seems stable, so I wouldn't worry about it giving way to our weight at all. Why are you worried Mario?" "So far the biggest resistance we've seen in this place is the guardian that we fought earlier. There have been no signs of enemy life and the only sentient 'creature' was that giant vine that tried to kill us. It just seems all too easy...Considering the worth of the stone, I would have assumed that the Elemental Overlord would've at least had some stronger defenses in place for anyone who manages to get this far. I guess it's only this easy because it is the first of the seven temples..."

Once Alex reaches the throne, he notices a green glimmer coming off of a round mossy-colored stone resting near the edge of the seat. With it obviously being the first Elemental Stone they need, the boy turns around and announces to the other two that he found it. "Just give me a second to fly up and grab it, and we will be out of here before you can say 'Photosynthesis'!" As he leaps up and moves towards the stone, Driad currently has his arms folded in front of his chest as something very important brings itself to the surface of his memories. Worried for his friend's safety, the flower yells out with a great deal or urgency "ALEX! WAIT, DON'T TOUCH THAT!" The words of which spark Mario's attention as he turns his head towards his friend with a shocked expression adjourned on his face.

But it was too late. By the time Alex heard his friend's warning, he had already tapped the stone with his right pointer finger, causing it to release a massive, blinding green burst of light. This lasts a grand total of five seconds before it vanishes completely. Having moved their arms in front of their faces to block out the light, it takes the heroes a moment before they look at where the stone once was. They are all forced to lift their heads up though, for in place of the object that they wished to acquire is a monster so big that it seems as though it would be able to sit on the throne in front of it. The titan is made entirely out of mahogany wood, its face shaped to look like that of a gentle mother bear, and its human-like arms and hands surrounded tightly by both moss, grass, daisies, and vines. The Elemental Stone is glowing brightly on its chest, as its trunk shaped legs remain motionless and its thorny club is grasped tightly in its right hand.

Making the foolish mistake of flying towards the creature's chest under the assumption that it is immobile, Alex is incapable of noticing it raising its right arm to strike. It takes the sound of its wood creaking for the boy to flinch and quickly fly backwards as the titan smashes its club down onto the throne, breaking it into hundreds of rock chunks of which none get launched into the air. As Alex lands down and skids behind Mario and Driad, he places one hand and knee against the ground and lifts his face up, noting the similarity in the titan's appearance and saying in a rather deadpan tone. "Geez...Shadow of the Colossus much?" Which Mario is quick to pick up on, as he briefly turns his head to look at his friend. "What was that?" He asks. "Nothing." The boy responds with a shake of the head as he gets back onto his feet. "What the heck is this Driad?"

"I really wish I had remember about this before we got here. This is the inner guardian of the Nature Castle, the Gaiden Plant." "Inner guardian?" Mario says with intrigue. "Yes. Each Elemental Stone has the soul of a powerful creature sealed within it. The Overlord implemented this defense mechanism into the stones to ward off anyone who wants to take their power for themselves. It activates when someone touches it, but don't worry, I know that we will still be able to get the stone. All we got to do is either deal enough damage to the body to tame it and cause it to retreat back into the stone. OR, we can try and separate the stone from the rest of its body, thus forcing its soul back in." "Personally, I say we should go for method two on this one." Alex interjects, to which Driad replies with a short nod."Then we better not waste any time, because here it comes!" Mario says, pointing one finger out at the titan as it is slowly lumbering towards the heroes, each step it takes shaking the ground ever so slightly.

**Furious Garden Titan: Gaiden Plant**

The Crayzee Dayzee is the first to take action, as he swings his right vine arm out and wraps it around the left shoulder of the Gaiden Plant. Dragging his body towards it and landing on the the arm with ease, the titan seemingly fails to notice Driad's existence as he draws forth his leaf sword and begins to cut at it in order to draw its attention. Instead, the titan slowly lifts its left arm up and three vines burst from the palm and rush towards Mario and Alex. While the boy draws two of them away by going into the air, the plumber wraps his arms around the remaining vine and begins to try and use his strength to try and pull it out. Thinking he won't have to fear being poisoned due to the vine's lack of thorns, he is surprised to see those prickly little objects suddenly popping up near the palm and beginning to travel down the vine.

Letting go to avoid getting punctured, Mario is smacked into a nearby pillar by the vine just a moment before the thorns reached the area the plant used to hit the plumber with. Though he does not suffer much damage, he is stuck to the pillar for a few seconds as the vine slithers ever closer to where he is. Once he is able to pull himself free, Mario uses his feet and right hand to perform a wall jump off of the pillar just as the vine breaks right through the structure. Now in the air, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom flings one fireball onto the vine to burn it instantaneously. To prevent itself from suffering the same fate, the Gaiden Plant breaks the vine off from the rest of its body with a thought, and summons two more to chase after Alex.

The boy is currently dealing with the first two vines on his trail by tricking them into wrapping themselves around one of the nearby pillars, their motions forcing them together and making it so they can't break free. For the final blow, Alex plans on delivering a swift but strong kick to the pillar. However, he just doesn't have the strength to break solid rock, and a sharp pain is thrust through his leg upon making contact with his target. Clenching the lower section of his leg as he waits for the sensation to end, Alex catches the other two vines violently rushing at him from out of the corner of his eye. Flying out of the way to avoid the sting of their thorns, the boy grins as one of the vines does his job for him by breaking the pillar and causing it to collapse and take out both itself and the other two vines as well.

He return to a serious expression though and grits his teeth as he turns his body around and speeds up slightly to try and lose the last pursuing vine. When he sees Mario waving at him from down below though, he comes up with an idea that not surprisingly his friend has thought of as well. As he dives down towards him, he keeps a playful smile on his face and turns his head to the left to make sure that the vine is still following him. Right before he impacts with the ground, Alex suddenly rises up, leaving the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom to deliver a flame-powered left jab right at the vine's tip, causing it to become inflamed and slowly burn to ashes as it falls to the ground. The Gaiden Plant ends its life prematurely though, just like he did with the previous vines beforehand. As he does so, its facial expression grimaces slightly, signifying that it is feeling the agony its attachments are experiencing as they got crushed and burned.

So far, Driad's efforts have done nothing to even scratch the surface of the titan's bark, the durability of mahogany proving to be more than a match for his leaf sword. "Hmm...This might prove to be a problem. Let me try another part of the body..." As the Crayzee Dayzee unwraps his right vine and gets ready to move on, the Gaiden Plant lifts its left arm up and draws in sunlight to the palm of his hand, where three seeds have suddenly appeared. Driad wraps his vine around one of the titan's fingers and swings himself over to the other arm. With the momentum he has built he hopes to pierce through the wood by impaling his sword through it. Amazingly enough, this strike of his manages to work. But the beast shows no signs of experiencing pain, and the flower warrior realizes something is up when he can't feel anything soft underneath the wood.

"No muscle tissue? Oh great..." Seeing no further purpose in being where he is at currently, Driad flips off of the arm of the titan and lands behind Mario and Alex, who were waiting for him to return before they went at the Gaiden Plant. "What the heck were you doing up there Driad? I thought our plan was to dislodge the stone for the chest of the colossus." Alex asks, to which the Crayzee Dayzee replies with "Well, I wanted to distract it by damaging it in some way, but it seems to have no nervous system, it's pretty much a mobile wooden statue." Now that he has that new bit of info, Mario position himself sideways and holds one arm behind his neck, calling forth fire to swirl around in the palm and increase in size until its is roughly the size of his head. "That's all I needed to hear. Now I won't feel bad about using this on it. Let's-a go!"

Swinging his arm in arc out in front of his body causes a fireball to fly right at the chest of the titan, with a blazing trail streaking behind it as it travels. Right before the attack can make contact with the Gaiden Plant however, its eyes glisten, and a barrier with a gel-like appearance is summoned around the creature to absorb the fireball before it vanishes even faster than it appeared. "Hmm?" Mario says, raising both eyebrows in surprise as he failed to notice the barrier, thus making him think as if his attack just simply had no effect. Before he can bring the issue up though, the titan finishes energizing its seeds and tosses them down onto the ground, where they sprout into miniature creatures with heads that look similar to that of a Piranha Plant's, though they have four palm leaves below their heads that allows them to hover off the ground and two small vines attached to their sides that wiggle around in a playful manner. Sniffing the air to identify each of their targets, the creatures that shall now be referred to as "Hover Piranhas" bite down twice and lightly snarl to show that they are ready to go.

Not intimidate in the slightest, Mario tosses one fireball at the Hover Piranha in front of him, but to his surprise the creature lifts its spinning leaves up and increases the rotation speed to the point where the wind projected from it blows out the fire with ease. It then lowers its body and grins, while its two siblings giggle just like a couple of kids would, before they simultaneously give the heroes a menacing grin and charge at them. Driad lashes one of his vines out to try and grab his Hover Piranha by the head, but the creature does the same, causing the two plants to become entangled. "Grrr..." The Crayzee Dayzee then begins grunting, as he tries to pull his opponent's limb off with all of his might, and the Hover Pirahna does the same. The struggle soon ends with Driad victorious, and the opponent's vine is completely torn off. He then uses it like a lasso, wrapping it around the head of the Piranha and then leap on top of it and tying it together into a knot, leaving just enough of the vine for himself to tug on.

"Alright little one, I don't want this to hurt, so just stay still..." The Crayzee Dayzee rests his only free vine down onto the Hover Piranha's head, gently speaking to it as he does so in order to ease its stress. It doesn't take long for him to take control of the plant and give it commands to fly on out of the temple, its mind being easy to manipulate due to how premature it is. With his job done, the Hover Piranha happily accepts Driad re-attaching his vine back onto his body with the lost tissue being regenerated not long after. The flower warrior then jumps off, and the Hover Piranha snuggles up to him before it flies out through one of the windows, cheerfully whistling all the way. Of course, Mario and Alex don't exactly have the power to control plants, so they are forced to fight their two pursuers whether they like it or not. Mario runs over to one of the pillars and with the speed he has currently he is able to run up it slightly with the Hover Piranha changing direction in order to continue the chase. Once he feels that he won't be able to run any higher, the plumber performs a backflip off of the structure and quickly flings a fireball at the unsuspecting creature, this time around it is unable to do anything about it, and his body bursts into flames and plummets to the ground like a meteor as his leaves are unable to sustain flight anymore.

Once on the ground Mario leaps out of the way to avoid coming in contact with the fire that erupts from the creature's impact with the ground. With only one Hover Piranha left, it is up to Alex to finish the job, as he flies into the air to begin an aerial battle with it. Unlike the other two heroes, the boy only has physical ways of attacking his foe, and with the creatures constantly lashing vines forcing him to sway back and forth to avoid them he has to think of a way to deal damage. "It's sentient, so I doubt I can trick it like I did the vines. Maybe..." Seeing a pointed branch sticking out from a wall nearby, the boy grins as an idea pops to mind. Increasing his speed to make it over to his desired target before it is too late, Alex grabs onto the low end of the branch and rips it out, turning around and brandishing it at the Hover Piranha, which causes it to grind to a halt with a rather puzzled frown on its face. But that frown is quickly replaced with a burst of immature laughter, which in turn causes the creature to lower its guard long enough for Alex to smash the stick right on top of its head.

The force put into this blow causes the Hover Piranha's teeth to be smashed together in a rather goofy fashion, and because its leaves end up getting bent out of place it then ends up falling to the ground, defeated. Alex then tosses the stick to the side and claps his hands together as he begins to float back to the ground. His landing is greeted by the sudden quaking of the ground, as the boy looks across the area to see that the Gaiden Plant has decided to take action against the heroes on its own, striking its club against the ground to try and intimidate the heroes, an effort which fails to do anything to them besides nearly upset their balance. Wanting to find out just why his fireball had no effect on the titan earlier, Mario runs out and grabs its attention the moment it raises its club, and once the weapon has been brought down once more the plumber leaps towards the nearest pillar to the left of him. He then grabs onto it and spins his body around it, vaulting himself towards the beast with his right fist covered in fire. When the Gaiden Plant raises its arm back up to block this incoming attack, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom spins himself around and uses his legs to propel himself off of the limb and then use the built up flames to launch a medium-sized fireball at the titan's head. Just like before, a barrier appears to block the attack, but this time around Mario manages to catch a glimpse of it before it vanishes, and in turn is quickly able to figure out just how it was created.

"So its using the sunlight as a barrier to absorb my fire attacks. Clever, I must admit, but there is more then one way to topple a titan." The plumber lands feet first against the side of the pillar and begins to slide down it, holding his left hand out and spamming fireballs at the beast to get its attention once more, and the Gaiden Plant responds appropriately by swinging its massive club at the pillar, breaking it in two and causing the pieces from the ceiling down to the breaking point to crumble to the floor just as Mario jumps off and somersaults onto the ground. In the span of time that the plumber takes to get back up though, the titan swings its arm around above its head and proceeds to bring the club down onto him. The overall wearing man's life is saved just in the nick of time though by Driad, who uses both of his vines to drag him out of the way just as the weapon cracks the ground in front of it.

Once he lets go of his friend, Mario gets up and thanks the Crayzee Dayzee for that close rescue, then relays the info he just determined about the beast's shield. "Well, looks like we won't be able to defeat the creature itself then, cause we got nothing that'll permanently seal the windows around here..." As Driad puts his vines underneath his chin and tries his hardest to think of a plan, Alex runs up to them, having overheard their conversation as he himself was trying to think of the next course of action with little success. "So what are we going to do? I sure as heck can't harm the creature, and I'm pretty certain I can't outmaneuver the swinging of its club." As the boy brings up a rather good point, Mario turns his head around and notices the cracks in the ground, he then quickly looks up at the titan as it stands motionless, waiting for the heroes to make their next move so it can attempt to strike them down again. The plumber dips his right hand into the pockets of his overalls, and feels around for the POW Block that he had purchased earlier that day. Thankfully, it hadn't fallen out at all, a fact of which causes him to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Alright, I think I got an idea. Alex, can you lure the beast towards those large cracks in the ground in front of it?" At first the boy doesn't understand just what Mario is planning, but as he suddenly remembers the events that had unfolded at the Item Shop, he gets a sly smirk on his face. "I see what you want me to do..." Both sentences actions are met with a confused expression from Driad, who has no idea what either of them are referring to. "Huh?" Is all he says, and Alex turns to him and wiggles his left pinky to tell him to follow him. "Don't worry about it, lets just provide a distraction, ok?" Seeing no reason to doubt the two of them, the Crayzee Dayzee nods his head and rushes alongside Alex over to where the Gaiden Plant is, and once they stop in place the boy waves his right hand in the air to get the titan to attack him. When the beast does bring its club down though, the two heroes jump in opposite directions to avoid the strike, and another section of the floor becomes cracked.

"You know, you really aren't going to harm us if you just stand in one place." Alex says as he flies into the air and moves back a bit to avoid another swing of the club. "I mean seriously now." While the boy is distracting the Gaiden Plant, Driad lashes both of his vines out towards the stone on its chest, but the effort is blocked as the titan covers it with the palm of his left hand. Seeing a point in what the boy is saying, the titan lifts its left foot up and moves it forward, the weight of it shaking the ground as it walks. After two more steps with both feet, the titan is now close enough to take another swing with its club, but Alex avoids it just the same. More importantly, it has finally set foot on the cracked ground, allowing Mario to execute his plan. He quickly pulls the POW Block out of his overalls and places it over his head, where it increases in size and hover on the spot. "Yahoo!" He exclaims as he leaps up to the hit the bottom of the block, causing it to collapse and send a powerful vibration coarsing through the ground around him.

With the Block itself having little to no effect on the Gaiden Plant, it is ready to move again when the greatly weakened floor suddenly collapses beneath it, causing the hulking titan to plummet down to the lower floors, its girth breaking apart the giant vine on the second floor and collapsing the spike pit into the first floor hallway, where the force of gravity causes the titan to crash onto the ground and break apart its body into hundreds of wooden pieces. The only things that remain completely intact by the time this is all said and done is the head and the Elemental Stone, whose glow can be seen even from up where the heroes currently stand. With the job done, Alex flies down to the bottom, while Driad slowly grapples down with one of his vines, and Mario leaps there. As the plumber scoops the stone up off the ground, Driad walks over to the head of the Gaiden Plant and stares into its nearly lifeless eyes.

"..." At that moment, the Crayzee Dayzee's eyes become hollow, as the head murmurs something to him. "So...So..." It seems to have a hard time finishing what it has to say, but Driad quietly responds with a "Fa-" Before he can finish though, the parts of the titan turn into a series of bright green sparkles, all of which are absorbed back into the glowing Grass Stone, and the flower warrior's eyes return back to normal with him seeming to be oblivious to what just occurred. When he turns back around to and walks over to where his friends are at, he sees that the plumber has put the first stone into his overall's pocket. "Well, one down, six to go. Admittedly..." Alex looks up and sees the two gaping holes made by the Gaiden Plant's fall. "We did cause a lot of damage to this temple, didn't we?" "Yes, but at least we survived. Good job everyone." Alex and Driad smile after hearing Mario's congratulations. "Now, let us get back to Toad Town. Once we go talk with E. Gadd we should be able to determine our next destination." "Ok!" The other two heroes say in unison. And with that, they depart out through the front entrance, ready for their next adventure...

_Next Time: Greeting by Murdering._

**Author Note:**

****I'd like to personally apologize to anyone reading this fic so far about the lateness of these chapters. I admit that I can't blame anyone but myself for letting things get out of hand like this, and I didn't want to tell anyone about this until later but I feel after this thirteen day break between chapters I must point this out.

You see, pretty much all of Part 1 has been completed. The thing is though, I when I did Chapters 1-11 I did them in script format, only changing my ways after I was convinced to do so by a good friend of mine. So I'm currently re-writing those chapters into story format, and from Chapters 12 onward all I'll need to do is skim through them and do minor fixes for grammar and to make sure that I don't contradict anything in the first eleven. So just saying this for anyone who is reading, after Chapter 11 to the end of this story, I will be making sure to upload one chapter per day. If I fail to keep up with my agreement here, then that means that I will probably be gone from a computer OR I am really busy with college schoolwork.

So yeah, to anyone reading, if you wish to leave any comments about the story, like questions or thoughts, then go right ahead. I'll be running my own "Word of God" service for anyone who has something to ask.

Thank you all for your time, and enjoy the next chapters of CotE!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Thirst of the Dark**

After a successful battle against the Gaiden Plant earned them the first of the seven Elemental Stones, the heroes began to make their way back to Toad Town, something that almost led them astray due to Driad nearly forgetting just what part of the woods they were currently in. Upon remembering though they easily reach the entrance and within a matter of minutes they are back in town. With this being the first time that he has ever visited this area, the Crayzee Dayzee's curiosity gets the best of him and he ends up wandering off without either Mario or Alex realizing that he has left. Once back at E. Gadd's laboratory they descend the staircase and find the Professor playing Solitaire on his computer. From the looks of things, he has just won the game in fifteen seconds. "Hmm...Still not a new record...Maybe if I were to-"

"E. Gadd, we're back!" The very act of Alex announcing their return almost causes the Professor to knock his keyboard onto the floor. After recovering from his shock he turns his chair around and gets off to walk over to where the two heroes are currently standing. "Ah, welcome back! I assume that things went well? Or are you here to hear that hint again?" Instead of responding with words, Mario pulls the Grass Stone out of his pockets and holds it out for E. Gadd to plainly see. Gently lifting his glasses upwards as he leans his head forward to examine it, the elderly Professor quickly pulls back and briefly does his signature laugh. "Ohohoho, excellent job there gentlemen. So I have to ask, what did you encounter in the temple?" So for the next five minutes, Mario and Alex take turns explaining to the Professor the things they so. As they do, he nods his head a few times to show his continuing interest in the subject.

When they have finished, E. Gadd nudges his glasses and does one final nod to show that he has comprehended everything that was said to him. "Very intriguing. So from the sounds of things, those stones are prisons for the souls of these so-called 'Inner Guardians', and these mythical creatures manifest themselves into a solid form upon touching them. But I do admit, I find the whole 'Good Guardian' thing to be the most interesting thing of all. Parts of the tablet that I just recently translating revealed the existence of both 'Outer' and 'Inner' Guardians, but say absolutely nothing about the Driad lad that is traveling with you currently. Of course, it could just be that there are some parts of this whole puzzle that the Overlord chose not to have revealed in the tablet. After all, what point is there to a legacy if there are not a few surprises here and there? Even so, I would like to see this Driad for myself...So, where is he now?"

Puzzled by E. Gadd's comment, Alex and Mario turn their heads back and forth and find that the Crayzee Dayzee has vanished from view. "Umm...Where did he go?" Alex asks. "Hmm...I guess he must've wandered off when we arrived back here." Mario responds. "Well, that's all fine and dandy anyways. I'm gonna need some time to finish translating where the location of the second temple is, so when you've found your new friend, come back here and I should be able to upload the coordinates to the iGadd." "Will do Professor." Mario says in a cheery tone, and after Alex has said farewell they depart from the lab. Outside, the two heroes come up with an obvious plan to seek Driad out. "How about we split up? I'll take the Eastern part of town, and you can take the Western end." Mario suggests. "Sounds like I good idea. The Town isn't that big, so he couldn't have gotten far. Even so, let us meet back here in about ten minutes, alright?" After shaking each other's right hand in agreement of the plan, both heroes go their separate ways.

The first thing that comes to Alex's mind as he begins his search is that he should check the one place in Toad Town where plants are given the most attention. As he quickly runs to the center of town, he briefly catches a glimpse of something looking directly at him from the corner of his eyes. As he stops in place and turns to look at whoever it is, he finds that said person is gone. The only thing he ended up seeing was that they appeared to have a human-like figure to them. Chalking it up as him seeing things, the boy shrugs his shoulders and continues on his way. Once at his destination, he looks to the right and sees a circular garden area with an arched door resting in the center of it. At the moment, this bountiful garden is being attended to by a female Toad wearing a shroom cap with pink dots and a sand-colored apron with a leaf sprout in the center of it. Her name is Minh T., and as Alex approaches her he takes caution to avoid stepping on any of her flowers.

Seeing the young boy approaching her causes the Toad to stop planting seeds for a moment and lift herself up to greet him. "Hello, how may I help you today sir?" She says in a surprisingly composed voice despite the fact that she should logically be shocked at the sight of a human that wasn't the Mario Bros. or the Princess. "I was wondering if you have seen a Crayzee Dayzee walking around here recently. He has a body made out of vines, if that helps with the identification at all." "Hmm..." After hearing Alex politely state his question, the Toad lass places her hand under her chin and tries to recall everything that happened to her today. "Lets see, I got up, had a green drink, fertilized my home garden, came here, watched as some red-cloaked jerk tore a poor tree out of the ground with his evil metal death arms, ate a salad, then came here and started planting seeds. Nope, sorry to say I haven't seen your friend~" After listening to her overall-y cheery recollection of events, Alex thanks Minh T. for her assistance and goes on his way.

"Hmm, well now where will I go to find him? There aren't any other gardens in...Toad...Town..." As his speech slows to a halt, Alex stops moving and slaps himself hard on the forehead as he realizes his own stupidity. "Of course Driad didn't go towards the garden. He has been in a forest for all of his life. He is probably looking at...Pretty much everything around here! Sheesh, if that's the case maybe I shouldn't bother trying to find him right now...Give him some time to see the sights and then he can come back when he is ready. Well, I'll just head back to the lab and wait for Mario..." Before the boy can exit the center of town though, he is tackled hard in the gut and knocked to the ground by a mysterious someone. Before he can react and toss a punch at the person, his arms are pinned to the ground by the person's legs. Completely surprised by this sudden occurrence, Alex looks up to see his attacker, and is completely surprised by what he sees.

It was a human, from the looks of things he was around the same age as he was. He wore a tattered brown shirt with a skull on the front of it, blue jeans with holes in the stitching, and had smooth, medium-length black hair whose sides extended down to a level below that of his chin. His face was brimming with an over-zealous grin as his piercing bright-red eyes further show his excitement. "After all this time, I have finally found you, Whiter!" He says in a raspy, deep tone that is rather unbefitting considering his age. "Who the heck are you?" Alex screams out in utter confusion. "Really? You don't recognize me? Me? The man whose life you ruined?" As he speaks, he moves one hand up so his fingers are pointed at his chest before thrusting his face forward and giving Alex a frenzied glare with his right eye. "Ruined your life? I've never even seen you before!" The Alex speaks out, his panicked cries doing nothing to help the situation that he is in as the mysterious boy lifts his head backs up and his teeth creak and form a chesire grin, as visible signs of plaque can be seen between each tooth.

"Do you really not know me? ...Oh, I see what you are doing, you are just feigning innocence. You fear me right now because you know that karma has finally caught up, that I, Joe Dark, have come to deliver retribution to you for the lives you have stolen from me!" As Joe Dark talks of things that the boy knows nothing about, he manages to catch the mentioning of his name, and thinks to himself "Joe...Dark?" As if there was something about the last name that sounded familiar to him. But he had no time to be thinking about such things, for the boy in question suddenly pulls a dagger out from his right pocket and holds it up in the air beside his head, the point aimed directly at Alex's left shoulder. The mere sight of this weapon causes the Toads to immediately stop what they are doing and run away in a frenzy, their fearful screams and rapidly waving arms being the things making the chaos that much more obvious as every last one of those fungi flee from the center of town to get a safe location.

"Are you insane? How did you acquire a weapon like that?" The pinned down boy exclaims, his utter surprise coming from the fact that he couldn't believe that someone this young could have such a murderous intent protruding from within. "You know how I'm going to do with this Whiter? I am going to take this dagger, and cut you with it...One deep scar in your flesh for every pint of blood that was spilled on that day. And when I can't do anything to you anymore, then I am going to lodge it into your head, and finally be at peace! Now, let us begin...Shall we, Whiter?" While Joe Dark holds the dagger up to his mouth and licks the dull end of it with his tongue, Alex's pupils shrink as he stares into the vacant eyes of his attacker. After he has prepared himself to enjoy the pleasure of cutting his trapped target, the clearly insane boy places his weapon close to the upper part of Whiter's left arm, his face grinning all the way.

"Now, its time for you to suffer, and there is not a damn thing that you can-" At that very moment, Joe Dark is socked right in the jaw and sent flying across the area, his body bounding against the ground three times before he skids along and ends up dropping his dagger right next to him. As Alex breathes a heavy sigh of relief, he sees a hand covered by a white glove outstretched towards him. That hand belongs to Mario, and with his help the boy is able to get back on his feet, though his arms feel a bit tired after having someone pressing against them for a few minutes. "Mario...Thanks for the save. But how did you know that I was in trouble?" "I heard the Toads panicking and went towards the direction they were running away from. Now, who is this guy?" As he asks for the identity of the mysterious, Alex could hear a hint of anger coming from Mario's voice.

"His name is Joe Dark. He seems to have an agenda against me...But I don't know why." Mario moves his head to the left and nods to show that he believes Alex. As he does this, Joe Dark gets back on his feet and sweeps his dagger up into the grasp of his right hand, his left hand being used to rub his sore jaw as he stares at the plumber with his eyes filled with a deep fury. Mario turns his head back around and holds his right hand above his head, charging a fireball in it with the boy kept in his sights. "Joe Dark, in the name of the Mushroom Kingdom Forbidden Laws, you are under arrest! Now lay down your weapon, or I will be forced to harm you." "Mushroom Kingdom Forbidden Laws?" Alex says in confusion. "In brief, the law dictates that anyone who uses a bladed weapon with the intent to hurt or kill ANYONE who has not been deemed a threat to the Kingdom will be sentenced to a lifetime in jail." Not caring in the slightest for the laws of the Kingdom, Joe Dark moves his arms out to the side of his body and raises his head into the air and begins laughing maniacally.

"HAHAHAHA! You wish to jail me? ME? And let that bastard Whiter walk around without punishment? I can't believe that you, the famous Mario, would stand by and let this injustice occur! ...Hahaha...HAHAHAHA! Very well then, hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. For following your laws and choosing to defend that insolent Whiter, you have made me your enemy! All who defend Whiter are my enemies, and their punishment shall be DEATH!" After making his insanity even more pronounced than before, Joe Dark charges at Mario with his dagger held behind his head. Once he is close to him he thrusts his arm out ready to stab the plumber in the face, but he simply moves his body to the right and gets rid of the flame so he can grab onto the boy's arm with both of his hands. The power of his grip forces Joe Dark to release his dagger, which Mario then follows up by letting go and shoulder charging the boy across the street, and once he has built up enough momentum he spins around with his arms outstretched to punch him multiple times.

The boy manages to endure every last hit though, and once Mario has stopped Joe Dark jumps back and kicks one foot out. The plumber wraps his right fingers around the leg's kneecap and pulls on it to make the boy lose his balance and force him to land on the ground back first. Mario follows up by raising a flaming covered fist above his face and bringing it down towards Joe Dark's gut. The boy's reflexes allow him to roll out of the way right before the attack can strike him though, the fist making contact with the ground and causing it to crack. As Joe Dark presses the palm of his hands against the ground in preparation for getting up and attempting another attack, he sees that Whiter is right in front of him, with him now having a clear shot to both his dagger and his target. Without taking any time to think things through, Joe Dark pushes himself up and uses his legs to leap into the air, where he suddenly floats in place, much to Mario's surprise.

"He can fly too?" The plumber thinks to himself as he prepares another fireball in his right hand. "No one can save you this time Whiter! DIE!" Joe Dark flies at the fear-struck Alex, using his right hand to pick his dagger up off the ground and quickly preparing to strike. With him being mere seconds away from his target, the insane boy thinks that his victory is certain. As Alex closes his eyes to embrace for the inevitable, two vines fly out from the side and wrap themselves around Joe Dark's gut, keeping him stuck in place just inches away from his desired target. As he struggles to move forward, he wildly slashes his dagger out in front of him to try and knick even a single hair off of Whiter's head. With the boy stepping back to avoid those desperate strikes, he looks to the left and sees that Driad is the one who has saved his life this time. "Driad! Boy, am I glad to see you!" Alex yells out, overjoyed by his friend's return.

As the Crayzee Dayzee walks forward, he slowly retracts his vines until he is standing right beside Joe Dark, who turns his head to stare at the flower warrior with a scowl on his face and a violent gaze piercing through his soul. "You damn little flower! How dare you interfere!" He screams out. "How dare I? How dare YOU try and harm my friend!" Driad exclaims, his voice brimming with a righteous fury. "Do you even know who you are defending? I will not be den-GRAHHH!" Before his sentence can reach an end, the flower warrior causes thorns to appear all over his vines, each one coming close to piercing Joe Dark's skin. "That's enough out of you, you vile human! It's time for you to begone!" Driad lifts his vine above his head and begins to spin them around and around, building up velocity until he feels it is time to let go, at which point he ends up flinging Joe Dark towards the direction of the forest, his body rendered nearly unconscious by the Crayzee Dayzee's efforts. Once he has left the heroes' sight, Driad fully retracts his vines and turns to look at Alex with a smile on his face, clearly unphased by the things he just did.

"Where the heck have you been Driad?" Is the first that comes to the boy's mind, as he raises his left arm up, clearly upset by the fact that he had wandered off like he did. "Chill out Alex, I was just over at the...'Item Shop' I guess you gus call it? I was gonna have some of their Maple Syrup, but I apparently needed...Coins? Whatever those are anyways..." "...Oh." Feeling ashamed for raging at his friend like that after he just saved his life and all, Alex lowers his arms down behind his back and looks towards the ground with his eyes heavy with guilt. At that moment, Mario walks up to them and pulls the Maple Syrup he bought earlier out from his overalls and hands it to Driad, who holds his hands out to catch it and dunk his face into the pitcher to begin drinking it down. After doing that favor, the plumber has a few things to say to Alex.

"You alright?" He asks, his arms folded in front of his chest as he tries to imagine the emotions that the boy must've felt during that traumatic experience. To his surprise though, Alex merely shrugs his shoulders and says "Yeah, I'm good." As if what just happened had little to no effect on him, which deeply concerns Mario. "You don't have to hide it Alex." "Mario, its ok. I may have been a bit freaked out by what happened at the time, but now that I'm safe I have no reason to be concerned." The boy quickly interrupts. The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom decides not to pursue things any further, choosing to believe what his friend has said about the situation and relaxing his muscles so he can return to his cheerful self. But his calm demeanor does come with a quick warning to Alex. "I doubt that that Joe Dark person is gone. Driad did a number on him, but he isn't dead. We will probably see him again, you know that though, right?"

"Yeah, but he won't be able to get the jump on me on our next encounter. That's the only reason I wasn't able to do anything against him when he appeared. Don't worry about it Mario." After the two of them nod at each other, Driad finishes his Maple Syrup and lets out a little burp, tossing the pitcher off to the side and wiping his mouth clean with his left vine, the gooey substance absorbed into his body once he touches it. "Ok, I'm satisfied. So what else is there to see in Toad Town anyways?" The Crayzee Dayzee asks with an innocent, curious intent. Mario turns around and answers his friend's question with "Well, we are going to head back to E. Gadd's lab now, so you can check that out if you want." As he mentions the Professor's lab, something comes to the plumber's attention. "Wait a minute...Joe Dark would've had to come through the Stargadd portal...So, did E. Gadd know about this? If he did, then why didn't he say anything?" These questions move through Mario's head as the group begins their walk back to lab.

With the knife-nut now gone, the Toads eventually return back to their normal duties no worse for the wear. Right before they enter the lab, Driad almost ends up wandering off again, only this time around Alex grabs him by the right arm and drags him into the building with them. At the very bottom of the staircase they find E. Gadd examining a close-up of the tablet, and it takes him hearing the sound of the heroes' footsteps for him to turn around and get off his feet to greet them. His focus is mainly aimed towards the Crayzee Dayzee, and from the description of the appearance given to him by Mario earlier he is able to quickly I.D. him as Driad. "Ah, welcome back once more my friends." The elderly man walks over to Driad and holds his right hand as a show of good manners. "And you must be Driad. I must say, it is a pleasure to meet someone familiar with the science of botany."

"Oh? Mario and Alex already told you about me?" Driad says in surprise, holding his right vine out to shake the man's hand. "Interesting, so your bodily structure is made entirely out of vines, yet you retain the same figure as that of a normal Crayzee Dayzee. I must admit, despite them telling me about this, seeing it first-hand is a more awe-inspiring experience for me. I must ask, can you make a hand with fingers and the like?" Letting go of the flower's vine to give him a chance to do what he requested, he finds that Driad has something to say to him beforehand. "While I can do that, it is only with one limb at a time. It takes a high level of concentration for me to do it also, so I don't do it often. But I'll still show you how its done." Using his mind to manipulate the vines in his body, Driad successfully causes four smaller vines to sprout out of his main right limb, and to show that his efforts were successful he wiggles them up and down.

"Fascinating..." E. Gadd says, taken aback by the Crayzee Dayzee's demonstration of his abilities. Not wishing to strain himself for very long, Driad revert his arm back to its normal form, the fingers slinking back in and the open holes sealing back up. "So, I also have to wonder...Do you-" "Professor, I hate to be rude by interrupting here, but we have an urgent issue we need to discuss with you." Mario says, which instantly stops E. Gadd's period of intrigue and has him turn his head towards the plumber to pay attention to him next. "What seems to be the matter Mario?" He asks. "When did you shut off the Stargadd?" Upon bringing that question up, the Professor freezes in place as he realizes that he has been caught. "Not long after you left to go find the Nature Castle...Why do you ask?" "Did you encounter someone named Joe Dark recently?" Alex is next to say.

"...As a matter of fact, I did. He came out of the portal, and when I asked who he was he claimed that he was a friend of your Alex. I then told them that you were off somewhere with Mario, and that he should wait around in town until you got back. I must admit my foolishness in not mentioning this to your beforehand, but I had my suspicions about him and didn't want to end up sending you both into a trap." E. Gadd seems to understand just what the heroes are leading up to, and feels guilt-ridden by the fact that he neglected to say anything earlier. "Well, thanks for the concern Professor, but in the end it didn't end up doing any good." After taking a moment to explain Alex's close-call against Joe Dark, E. Gadd asks the boy something. "Are you ok?" Despite being said in a polite tone, Alex can't help but feel annoyance over the fact that this is now the second time in the last ten minutes that someone thinks he has been emotional scarred by those events.

"I'm fine. There is no need to worry about me." Even so, the boy doesn't respond in a bitter fashion, instead he calmly assures the Professor that he is still able to maintain his composure. "Alright, then I'll drop the issue. For now, I think it would be in your best interest to get a move on to the next temple, yes? The day is still young, after all." "Mmm-hmm!" Mario hums and nods, before pulling the iGadd out of his pockets and handing it over to the Professor. As he turns around and inserts the device into his computer, he takes a moment to move his screen so he can clearly highlight one line of text on the tablet. "Like the previous temple, there is a hint here that I decoded for you. It goes something like this... _'Left and right, back and forth. No matter which way the seas shall sway, all it takes is a bit of God's light to part them both ways.'_" With that key bit of information, E. Gadd pops the device out of the slot and walks back over to Mario, the map already up for his convenience.

As the plumber looks directly at it, his eyes widen with shock. Noticing that, Alex and Driad leans their heads over to see where the next temple is, only for them to share the same expression that their friend now has. "The next temple is in the waters near the Toad Town Docks?" Mario and Alex say in utter disbelief. "I think its fitting that its there. After all, you will now be going to the Aqua Palace." E. Gadd is quick to note. "All you need to do is remember the hint, and you should be able to figure things out from there. I wish you all the best of luck." With only some cryptic information to help them out, the heroes say their goodbyes to the Professor and head on their way. Upon their departure, a ringtone that takes cues from "Luigi's Engine Room" can be heard coming from the pocket of his lab coat. As he pulls out a Cellular Shopper that he converted into a real cell phone, he flicks the top part of the phone up and holds it up to his left ear. "Hello? Oh, I'm glad you called. You are almost here? It would be good for you to know that they are currently headed towards the Toad Town Docks, so head there once you arrive. Don't worry about it, I've assisted you many times before without asking for anything in return. Alright, see you later, bye." After speaking with that mysterious person over the line, E. Gadd closes his phone and puts it away, returning back to his work once he has caught his breath.

Meanwhile, back in the Osagi Woods, we find the vile witch Cackletta and her crazy lackey Fawful walking out of the Nature Castle, both having disappointed looks in their eyes. "It seems that the object of desire which has taken on the form of a sphere and possibly the coloring of a leaf has performed the act disappearing, mistress!" "Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Fawful...That's fine, its not important that we get all the stones anyways." "Then why are we in the process of doing that which is like putting clocks in a trash compactor?" "Because, my red-cloaked henchmen, I wished to intercept that nasty plumber and friend before they could get anywhere, and eliminate them...Hmm?" As Cackletta gets ready to leave the area by summoning a couple of holes in the ground, she notices the fainted body of Joe Dark lying on the ground nearby. With his teeth gritted down and his eyelids closed, he only murmurs one thing over and over. "Whiter...Damn it...Whiter..." Interested by the boy's mentioning of that particular name, the witch slinks over to his unconscious body and spreads her cloak out wide, her wrinkly hands raised as high as possible. As she wraps her cloak around both herself and the boy, her laughter echoes throughout the forest. "EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!"

_Next Time: Thunder Strikes Green_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Oh wow, I just realized that I didn't have anonymous reviews enabled. Heh, so for any of you who don't have an account on here want to say anything now you'll be able to do so. Sorry for the inconvenience.**_

**Chapter 8: Splitter of the Seas**

Wasting no time in continuing their adventure, Mario, Alex, and Driad make their way to the docks of Toad Town, which lies due west from E. Gadd's Laboratory. For a port mainly used for business trade and travel, it is surprisingly vacant, the only active workers being those who are taking inventory near the piles of crates underneath the crane. Even ClubWii, A.K.A. the renovated Club 64, has closed its doors for the day. "How eerie. I'm not used to this area being this empty. Usually there are boats going in and out, the Toads hustling about as they try to get stuff done." Mario is quick to note, and to find out just why things are the way they are he goes over to one of the Toads and asks them about it. "Ah, Mr. Mario, what brings you here on this inactive day?" The monocle wearing fungi named Enven T. says to the famed hero. "Just on another adventure. Say, why are the docks so quiet today?" "I'm afraid that business has been a bit slow due to how dangerous the waters are this time of year, so all that can really be done around here is inventory. Of course, anyone who wishes to visit here will now be able to enjoy the tranquility of sitting on the edge of the docks, feet kicking against the boards as the open seas play their gentle melody."

As the Toad closes his eyelids and begins to imagine that wonderful feelings, Mario places one hand against his chin and bites the lower part of lips. "Oh. Well, I hope things pick up again for you soon." He says as a bid of good faith, to which Enven T. thanks him for with a nod of his head. With that, the plumber joins his two friends over by the boards. Alex is currently at the edge of the boards, leaning out to try and find anything that resembles a palace out on the horizon. "Nothing there...Nothing there...Definitely nothing over there. Huh, if I were a palace made to hide the Water Elemental Stone, I would obviously be placed underwater...But there are no signs of one around." As he ponders to himself about the hint E. Gadd gave them, Driad and Mario stand behind him as they discuss the encounter with Joe Dark.

"Driad, if you don't mind me asking this..." "Hmm?" The Crayzee Dayzee flinches, turning his focus towards the plumber only a moment afterwards. "Yes Mario?" He says in a curious tone. "Why did you attack Joe Dark as violently as you did? Even if he was breaking one of the Forbidden Laws, there was no reason to go that far." Seeing as he was hoping that both of friends would've forgotten about what he did, Driad slants his eyelids upward and turns his head away from Mario, placing his left vine into his mouth and biting down on it. "I...I honestly don't know what to tell you Mario. When I came into the area and saw that Alex was in danger, it was like some furious instinct awoke inside of me and completely took over. If I had to take a guess, then maybe it has to do with the fact that, despite being a Good Guardian and all, I have a hidden urge to protect things I care about buried deep inside of me...At all costs."

As Mario listens in, another question comes to mind, though he is patient enough to let his friend release his thoughts, and once he is done he turns himself back around and reveals that a smile has returned to his face. "At the very least, if I do have these urges, I am able to prevent things from getting out of hand. After all, I didn't kill him, now did I?" "That's true, but I just had to state my concerns. Speaking of which, how come the Good Guardian of this next temple hasn't shown up by now?" "Beats me." The flower bluntly states with a shrug of his shoulders, to which Mario quickly responds by falling to the ground with his arms outstretched. Once he gets back up and dusts his overalls off, he asks Driad to ignore what he just did and continue. "Its not like they'd be able to recognize me. None of us have been told about the others' identities."

"How come?" The plumber asks, interested to hear the reasoning behind Driad's statement. "Probably so no mystic or user of the dark arts could read our minds and discover the locations of the other temples via our memories of where the other guardians are at. We were never told why, so I'm just theorizing here." "Sounds like a well-founded theory to me." Mario responds. "Still, I'd imagine the Good Guardian would have a unique appearance like I do. So when or if they choose to make themselves known it shouldn't be hard to identify them." As they continue their conversation, the two heroes walk out onto the boardwalk to join Alex and help him out. "Still, we don't have all day to wait for...Whoever it is to show up and assist. Not only that, but from the sounds of E. Gadd's hint I don't think they are going to show us the way to the Aqua Palace." "Maybe, maybe not. You never know until it happens." Driad retorts.

Once the two of them have made it by Alex's sides, the boy turns around and rubs the back of his head, his lips curled upward as he tries to make sense of things. "Sorry guys, but I haven't been able to figure it out...Tag-out?" "Mmm-hmm!" As both Alex and Mario switch places, they exchange a quick high-five. Now the plumber is leaning his head out to scan the seas, and Alex is standing beside Driad. "Say Alex, since we got a minute, would you mind telling me a few things about yourself?" The flower innocently requests. "Ummm..." The boy places one finger against the front of his chin and looks up towards the sky with one eye, with the other one looking down at Driad from the corner. "Like what exactly?" He asks. "Just tell me stuff you'd feel comfortable mentioning. If I'm being too intrusive, then just say so and I'll drop it." Driad responds, assuring his friend that he will respect his feelings on the subject.

"Well, I guess I'll start off with the basics. First off, unlike Mario, I was born on the Planet Earth." "Oh! Fascinating...So how did you get here?" "E. Gadd's Stargadd, a device that is apparently capable of allowing one to travel to whatever planet they desire so long as they have the name of the place in mind. Anyways, Earth is a pretty normal place honestly. Unlike here, our plants and animals can't talk, nor do our hills have eyes that watch your every move. Even so, there are some lovely sights. I myself live in a house built within a mountain range. Usually by myself since my parents..." For a few seconds, Alex stops what he is saying and his eyes show signs of sadness, which Driad quickly catches. "You ok there?" He asks. The boy shakes his head to regain his composure. "Yeah, I'm fine." Once he has finished shaking he continues talking about himself. "I'm usually by myself because my parents travel a lot, and while it does seem crazy to leave someone my age alone in a house I can assure you that I'm capable of feeding and taking care of myself. Sometimes I prepare salads-"

"What's a salad?" Driad interrupts with one vine raised. "A meal usually consisting of leafy greens and carrots." "People on your planet eat plants?" The Crayzee Dayzee exclaims, his jaw dropped in absolute disbelief. "Remember, they aren't alive on Earth." Alex's reassurance of that fact causes Driad to return to his normal expression, instantly caring little about what was just said. "Sorry, continue." "...Anyways, the only other thing I can really share with you is that most of the things I have learned throughout life, such as mathematics, literature, and science, was self-taught." "...What is a...Mat-he-maticks?" Driad asks, his pronunciation of the word leaving much to be desired. "You don't know? Well, I guess that's understandable. Tell you what, I'll make sure to give you some lessons later on. But with that said..." Alex turns his head towards Mario and finds that he has gotten on his knees with one finger put into the water.

"Made any progress there Mario?" He asks. As the plumber lifts his body up, he checks his finger to see bits of sea moss attached to it. "I got nothing, unfortunately." As Mario walks past the other two, he presses his arms against his chest and starts to think to himself. "The Overlord certainly did a good job hiding this temple. I'm really starting to wonder just how-" Before he continues, he catches a glimpse of the sun beaming down onto him, and at that moment he remembers E. Gadd's hint. "God's light..." He murmurs to himself, reaching into his overalls and pulling out the Grass Stone. He then turns around and rushes to the edge of the dock, lifting the stone into the air so it is positioned in front of the sun.

"Whatcha doing now?" Alex asks, surprised at his friend's sudden actions. "Just trying something out. We don't really have any other options now do we?" As the sunlight comes down onto the stone, its appearance becomes clear and it begins to absorb it all into itself. When it has gotten enough of it, it solidifies as green sparks start to emerge all around it. Then a series of glowing leaf-green rings surround the stone and sink into it, and without any forewarning it fires a large beam of solar-powered energy in the direction of the water. The power of the beam alone would've been enough to knock any normal person back, but the strong-armed plumber keeps his fingers wrapped tightly around the stone, letting it carve a predetermined line across the water until it reaches its destination and automatically stops firing. Now the seas have been split slightly by the beam's strength, and after the ground trembles slightly the two massive walls of water move aside even further as if to give the heroes enough walking room. At the very end of the now dried up walkway is the top of what appears to be an entrance to some underwater ruins. That is to say, a long, marble tiled structure that is only two stories tall with a black passageway in the very front of it.

Alex and Driad's mouths are wide-open as their bodies lean forward in utter shock, and even the eyes of the usually composed Mario are being kept open by this incredible phenomenon. Even so, as the plumber puts his stone away he has a very important fact to bring to the table. "We probably don't have much time. Lets get moving." With a prompt given by the wave of his right hand, the other two heroes regain their composure and follow their overall garbed friend as he jumps off the dock and lands on the ground below. As they head out on their way, a random Toad passes by the docks and notices the split seas. "...Maybe I need to lay off the Shroom Shakes." He says after a brief pause to gather his thoughts. Giving it no further heed, he proceeds to leave the area without saying a word.

Back with the heroes, they have made it halfway towards the temple, their eyes mainly focused on the wildlife swimming around in the seas. As much as they wish to leap out and take a bite of them, they are smart enough to know that doing so will just lead to their deaths. "I'm not the only one staying alert for the outer guardian, right?" Alex asks as he sees a school of Cheep Cheeps peacefully floating in the water. "Not like we'd have any way to know what it will look like, but yeah, I am." Driad responds, and Mario simply nods. Though little do they know, that a creature has begun to stir within the waters. From afar it glares at the heroes with its glowing yellow eyes, its presence concealed by the dark depths from which it floats in. In particular, the creature is looking at Driad, thinking in its mind that he would be the easiest target to attack first.

Soon the heroes are only a few yards away from the entrance, but they stop moving for a moment because they don't want to repeat the events that transpired at the Nature Castle. With them now motionless, the creature decides to makes its move, waving its tail back and forth to propel itself through the sea towards them. Sensing something amiss, Driad turns his body to the left just in time to see the yellow dots that represent the creature's eyes coming right at him. "Its here!" He says in a panicking tone, but it was too late for him to caution his friends. The beast bursts through the wall of water and opens its mouth up wide to try and bite down onto Driad. The Crayzee Dayzee's reflexes though allow him to jump into its mouth just in the nick of time and use both of his vine arms to keep the it from slamming shut. He then holds his breath as the creature returns to the sea, the other two heroes barely having any time to react to this series of events, and once Driad has been taken away they fear the worst.

Inside the waters though, the flower warrior is proving to be a stubborn little treat for the creature to devour. As he slowly backs out of the mouth, he keeps his vines in the same position to ensure his survival, for if he allows the creature to close his mouth, he will die. Once near the teeth, the Crayzee Dayzee comes up with a crazy plan to get back to the mainland. As he lets go, he quickly leaps back and retracts his vines right as the beast closes his mouth. With the speeds it is going at causing Driad to ram into his face, the flower warrior then works against the water pressure to climb to the top of the creature and wrap one of his vines around its neck so he can control its movements. There is still a little difficulty involved because its hard for him to keep a steady footing on this slimy beast, but once he has gotten a hang of things the Crayzee Dayzee jerks his vine to the left to cause the creature to do a complete 180 and swim back to land.

However, there is some resistance along the way. The creature sways itself towards some of the submerged rocks to try and shake his rider off, but Driad is able to regain control every time and avoid the rocks long enough for the end to come into view. As they are about ready to burst out of the wall, Driad releases his grip around the creature and leaps up, the speed built up from riding the creature providing him with just enough momentum to break through and quickly lash his vines around the guts of his two friends and falls down beside them, somersaulting to the left and pulling them along with him onto the ground so they aren't crushed by the creature as it emerges from the water and crashes into the ground. After saving Alex and Mario, Driad removes his vines from them and gets up, as do they. The boy's heart is beating rapidly though, and it takes him looking at the creature's motionless body for him to calm himself down.

With now being a good time for them to look at it, it also a convenient time for a description of the creature's appearance. Its head is a perfectly rounded sphere perfectly wrapped up in yellow seaweed and swamp-green moss, with triangle shaped teeth and circular eyes with bulging yellow pupils in the center. Connected to the head are a couple of stubby, scaled claws resembling those you'd find on a velociraptor, and behind it is a long, slimy tail whose appearance is similar to that of an eel's, with a dark-yellow center and a wavy light-blue exterior. "Guess it can't survive on land. Well, that was easier then the-" Alex should've known better then to tempt fate, for before he can finish his sentence the creature's eyes spring to life and focus their attention towards the heroes as it snarls, immediately causing them to jump back in surprise as the beast rises up off the ground and turns itself around so it can stare down the three with both of its eyes. As the wiggling of its claws signal two pillars of water to burst from the ground beside him, the creature opens its mouth and chomps down a few times, a metal clink being heard each time along with a familiar sounding bark.

**Creeper of the Tides: Gecko Hydra**

However, after the Hydra's brief moment of intimidation, it quickly turns and moves flies back into the water. Curious as to why the creature isn't fighting them yet, the heroes are caught completely off-guard when it bursts through the wall at bullet speed. "DUCK!" Mario yells out, and both he and his two friends instinctively do just that, the Hydra flying harmlessly over them as it zig-zags back and forth to try and ram into them. When it tires of that action, it returns to its original position and snaps its claws to cause water spouts to emerge at random intervals across the ground around him. Driad tries to attack it by swinging his arm out in front of his body to send a few sharp leaves at him, but the Hydra simply opens its mouth and spits out a few bubbles that manage to catch the leaves without breaking and send them floating up into the sky.

The Crayzee Dayzee only has a moment to curse his failure before he is forced to jump out of the way of a spout. Mario takes advantage of this spout to jump onto it and upon it reaching the top and dissipating he leaps over to the next one, continuing to do so until he is in range of the Hydra, at which point he jumps off and sticks both his feet out to divekick at its head. The creature defends itself by moving back and performing a spin that sends a cascade of water up from the end of its tail that successfully knocks Mario away. With that momentary distraction though, his spouts have stopped appearing, and Alex takes full advantage of this to fly forward and slam his right fist into the Hydra's forehead. Amazingly, this leaves an indent in the creature and pushes it back slightly until the boy pulls his hand out, at which point the the skin pops back into place and the creature spins around to smack Alex away with the hard part of its tail.

The boy is caught mid-air by Mario, who lands on the ground and lets him get off, accepting his thanks before rushing forward with two fireballs floating below the palms of his hands. The Hydra re-summons the water spouts to impede his overall progress, but the plumber leaps into the air and wall kicks off of the spouts to get through, at which point he combines the fireballs into one singular orb and dunks it on top of the Hydra's head, the force put into the attack slamming the creature down into the ground, which Mario then uses the tail as a springboard to backflip over to where Alex and Driad are at. Before the plumber can even clap his hands together for a job well-done, he and his two companions suddenly find themselves trapped within sphere composed entirely out of water, which begin to rise into the air along with the Hydra, who reveals that save for a small singe mark it was completely unharmed by Mario's attack.

It then opens its mouth up as water begins to gush within the esophagus, a sign that the Hydra is preparing quite possibly its strongest attack to finish the heroes off. While Alex and Driad are worried for their lives, Mario closes his eyelids and decides to have absolute faith that something will happen to save them. The Crayzee Dayzee and the boy, however, close their eyelids for entirely different reasons, for they have chosen to accept the fact that this might be their final moments. With their vision obscured, they have no clue about the events unfolding around them. The noise the waves make around them distracts from the sound of footsteps rapidly passing by them. Right as the Hydra is about to fire a torrent of water from its mouth, someone kneels down in front of it and squeezes their arms against their chest. The wind ruffling behind their shoes as smoke comes out from the legs. Once a proper charge has been built up, the person propels themselves through the air like a missile, hitting the creature's jaw with enough force to cause its head to be jerked upwards and the blast of water fired into the sky.

After doing some damage, the mysterious person jumps back twice as the creature slowly lowers its head into the proper position. That single blow to the jaw was just enough to dispel the water bubbles, and with the heroes unaware of what just happened they all fall on their bottoms with their eyelids jerked open. It takes a few seconds for the heroes to get their bearing and stand on their feet, but when they do they are able to take a look at their savior. Recognizing who it is without even taking a moment to ponder things, Mario gets a joyous grin on his face, Alex's eyes become wide with shock, and Driad, who has no clue just what the big deal is, just tilts his head and innocently places one of his vines against his currently pin-hole sized mouth. It was the man in green, the younger yet slimmer brother of Mario, the wielder of the Thunderbrand and a guy easily identified by the "L" on his cap and his random bouts of cowardice. It was Luigi, who is currently standing sideways with his arms held out in front of his stomach and his head turned to stare the creature down as it barks at him.

As the heroes get ready to say something, Luigi holds one hand up to stop them. "We can play catch up in a bit bro." The green-garbed man turns his body around so all of it is pointed at the beast. He then holds his left hand in front of his chest and punches it with his right. "Just give me a couple of minutes to finish this thing off." He says in a surprisingly confident tone of voice as the water fired earlier rains down around the area. The Hydra responds to his confidence by opening its mouth and sucking all these raindrops in, combining them all together and unleashing most of it in the form of one quick aquatic blast that is easily jumped over by the Italian man, his body ending up high in the air from that single bound. The Hydra raises its head up and fires another blast, but Luigi retaliates by holding an electric charged hand out in front of his body that makes contact with the water and threatens to send an amplified amount of voltage back at the user. However, the creature catches wind of the electricity fast enough to close its mouth and thus cut the water off from the source.

As the water explodes and creates a diagonal pillar of smoke, the man in green falls to the ground and takes advantage of the concealment offered by the smoke to pull his silver hammer out and leap at the unsuspecting creature, bringing it down onto its head with enough force to shatter a human skull. For the Hydra though, its bones are merely cracked, and it nudges its head upwards to send his opponent away. When Luigi has landed on the ground the creature tries to trap him in the same type of bubble that it did the others, but having observed that technique from afar the man in green is able to somersault out of the area of which it was preparing to trap him, leaving a lone water bubble there for Luigi to take advantage of. With his hammer still gripped tightly in his right hand he holds his left one out with the thumb pointed up. He then presses down on the bottom of his pointer with it and a bolt of electricity is sent out that turns the water bubble into a large lightning orb. Quickly running to the back of the orb so he can make it work for him, the man in green positions his hammer just right behind him and takes a massive swing at the back of the orb, the impact sending it flying straight at the Hydra.

With the attack still being composed of water though, all it takes is a snap of the claws for it to be dispelled and the electricity to fizzle out of existence with nothing to keep it together. But in the time it takes for the creature to think about its next move, Luigi rushes towards it and leaps into the air, delivering a powerful uppercut to the jaw of the creature that cracks the bone structure of the skull. With his fist still supercharged with electricity, the man in green declares the name of his final move. "SUPER CONDUCTOR PUNCH!" As a few storm clouds begin to loom overhead, the booming sound of thunder spreading across the skies as a massive conglomeration of lightning bolts comes down and smites the Hydra full force. Being the one who summoned the attack, Luigi is unharmed, and as he lands on the ground and walks away from his opponent it falls to the ground, its entire body roasted into a crisp light brown color with eyes wide-open and jaw disjointed. There are no signs that it is even the least bit alive, but that is to be expected.

Having watched Luigi's entire performance, Alex's arms are drooped forward with his jaw agape. He slowly twists his head to look at Mario, who is chuckling happily to himself as his brother walks over to him and the two exchange a quick brotherly hug. "Since when has LUIGI been such a badass?" The boy thinks to himself as the man in green turns his head to look at him, at which point he decides to keep his cool. "So you must be Alex Whiter, right?" Luigi asks. "How do you know my name?" The boy responds. "And why did you come here? Last I checked you were in Sarassaland and weren't going to be back for a few more days." Mario also points out. The man in green steps back and adjusts his hat upward as he gets ready to explain himself.

"I'm here because E. Gadd asked me to help you guys out. He called me up about a few hours ago and told me all about your quest, so I took a plane back to the Mushroom Kingdom and came here right away because this is where he said you'd be at. As for being in Sarassaland, Daisy had no problem with me coming back, in fact, she said hi." "Well I'm glad you came and rescued us Luigi." As Mario and Alex converse with the man in green, Driad listens on, and after hearing his name repeated a few times something finally clicks in his head. "You are THE Luigi?" He asks, and the plumber turns his body around to pay attention to the Crayzee Dayzee. "Gadd didn't tell me anything about you. What is your name little flower?" He asks while kneeling down slightly. "My name is Driad. I am one of the Elemental Overlord's Good Guardians who has lived in the Osagi Woods. I have heard stories about you."

"Huh? I thought you had never visited Toad Town before Driad, so how would you know about Luigi?" Mario ponders. "Luigi, do you happen know someone by the name of Hayzee?" Driad quickly asks. "Yeah, he was one of my partner's during my travels in the Waffle Kingdom, why do you ask?" "Because he has come into the Osagi Woods a couple of times for inspiration for future plays. We spoke to one another, and he told me the story about the adventure he had with you. I think he said he had also come to the Mushroom Kingdom to visit you. "Oh yeah, now that you mention it I do remember him saying that he spoke with one of the natives of the Woods. So he was referring to you then, how interesting...Well, I must admit, it will be nice to get to know you Driad." The man in green says with an arm outstretched to shake the Crayzee Dayzee's hand. The plant holds one vine out, and the greeting is completed when the two of them do the handshake.

"So anyways..." Luigi gets back up and turns to look at Mario. "I stopped by the lab on the way here, and the Professor wanted me to give you this." Reaching into his overalls, the man in green pulls out a miniature suit shaped to look like the skin of a frog. "He said that this would probably come in handy for where we about to go." "Oh cool, a Frog Suit!" Alex says in a moment of excited nerdiness as the red plumber takes the suit and puts it into his overall pocket. "Thank you very much Luigi, and I'll make sure to say the same to the Professor once we get back. For now though..." The heroes all turn to look at the now unguarded entrance to the Aqua Palace. "It's time to get a move on. You all ready?" There are no objections from the group, and Mario gives one nod of the head to show that he feels the same way. So with that, they make their way towards the structure, ready to conquer the inside of it and get the next Elemental Stone...

_Next Time: Don't Drown. In Fear of Lifelessness they Swim._


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Floating Melody**

With the Gecko Hydra soundly killed at the hands of, believe it or not, LUIGI, the heroes have now entered the Aqua Palace. Unsurprisingly, the environment is much more brighter and pristine in appearance then the dark confines of the Nature Castle. The walls are patterned by light-blue marble tiles and a few metal pipes, which curves down and steadily deposits water into a pit on the far end of the room. There is also a lone crack on the left wall, but there seems to be nothing significant hiding behind it. As both Luigi and Mario examine the area, Driad nudges Alex with his left vine to grab his attention. "Hmm?" The boy murmurs as he turns to look at his friend. "What is Driad?" He asks, the flower currently having a puzzled expression on his face.

"What is Luigis relation to Mario? The way they dress is similar, and from the sounds of things they live together..." Driad innocently places his right vine against his lips. "Are they lovers?" As they overhear what the two are talking about, Mario and Luigi stop in place and do a quick spit-take, and the man in red turns around with a surprised look in his eyes. "What? No! Alex, please correct Driad while Luigi and I continue to look around!" "Wait, but-" "Now, Alex..." As the boy tries in vain to rebute Mario's order, the plumber rubs his fingers against his face out of disbelief that the Crayzee Dayzee would even say something like before promptly turning around and continuing doing what he was doing before.

With a nervous grin caused by being forced into explaining things to Driad, Alex turns his head to the left and gets to work. "No Driad, they aren't lovers." "Really? I always thought that two people who were very close to one another emotional were considered lovers..." "While that may be true, that's not the word that describes Mario and Luigi's relationship. Brothers, is the correct terminology." "What is a...brother?" The Crayzee Dayzee says, head tilted in confusion. "There are many definitions to the word. Abbreviate it to 'bro' and it means two guys that share a tight friendship with each other, add '-in-arms' to the word and it refers to the tightly knit relationship in a unit of soldiers on the battlefield. But with the Mario Bros., their relationship is defined by the fact that they were born under the same mother. Does that explain things well enough for you Driad?"

"I suppose so. Thanks alot Alex." Driad says in an appreciative tone. "Now I have a question for you." The boy says, with one arm leaned against his chest as the hand is used to grip the elbow of his other arm, the upper section raised into the air with its hand held out beside his face. "Why is it you are knowledgeable about certain things, yet clueless about others? Didn't the Elemental Overlord instill you with an understanding of all things?" "Nope, sorry to say. Or maybe he did and I've simply forgotten most of it after all these years. I must admit, I am a little insulted by your question Alex." As the Crayzee Dayzee folds his vines in front of his chest and turns away from Alex, the boy feels a little guilt over questioning his friend's intelligence without wording things correctly. "Actually...There was no right way of putting it...Darn it all."

After he snaps his fingers in front of his chest, the flower warrior flinches and glances over at the boy without turning his head even an inch. "I'm really sorry Driad. I didn't intend to hurt your feelings, I'm serious when I say that. I was just...curious, that's all." "..." At first the flower is silent, as he contemplates whether or not he should easily forgive Alex. It takes a few moments, the boy staring concernedly at him as he awaits his answer. "Oh fine, I guess I can't hold it against you." Driad responds, turning his head and giving the boy a smile, which relieves him and causes him to swipe across his forehead with the side of his hand. "Alex, Driad, you might want to come over and see this." Luigi calls out to them, waving a hand to call them to the edge of the pit that both he and Mario are overlooking at this very moment. At his prompt, they walk there and see that the entire area below them is submerged underwater, with sea-life of all sorts swimming around in its depths.

"Oh this is just GREAT!" Alex says, slapping the front of his face with the palm of his right hand. "Something the matter Alex?" Mario asks with his head turned to the right. "Yeah, some bad memories are beginning to surface...Of a green tunic wearing man searching for keys, and water levels that both rise and fall...Brrr. Well, good luck figuring this out guys, I'm just going to head back to E. Gadd's lab and-" As the boy turns around and gets ready to rush out of there, he is effortlessly stopped by Mario grabbing the back of his shirt collar as he stands up. "Don't worry, you won't be jumping in." The plumber reassures him, letting go of the boy after he can tell that he has stopped trying to escape and using that very hand to pull the Frog Suit Luigi gave him out of his overalls. He then turns his head and nods at the others. "I'll do it."

Mario tosses the suit up into the air and lets it land on his head, and after a quick cloud of smoke appears and dissipates the skin of the creature is now wrapped around the plumber's body as he is now on all fours ready to leap into the water. "Luigi, I can't bend my head down like this. What am I up against?" The man in green curls his fingers against his palms and looks down at the sea-life with the "binocular" hands placed in front of his eyes. "I see...Ten Urchins, seven Bloopers, Four Cheep Cheeps, two Sushis, Ten Jelectros, and four Unagis." "Oooo, Unagis? This might complicate things..." "Don't worry bro, they are the small ones, not the Mega variety." "Oh really? Well then, I'll try looking for a switch or something that will lower the water level. Be right back guys." With his mind clear and focused, Mario leaps into the water and begins to swing his arms and legs out to make his way towards the bottom.

The enemies catch wind of his appearance though, and each of them react accordingly. The Unagis and Sushis rush right at him, while the Bloopers, Urchins, and Cheep Cheeps inflate themselves slightly and slowly begin to rise. The Jelectros remain motionless though, hoping that one of the enemies will accidentally lure the plumber in their direction. With his strength decreased due to water pressure, Mario knows that the only way he will be able to defeat the swarm is to outmanuver them. Luckily, the added mobility he has gained from the Frog Suit will help him accomplish just that. First off, the plumber quickly dives down so two of the Unagis butt heads with each other, their thick skins rendering them both unconscious. Next, he spins his body around in a spiral to increase his speed to the point that he is able to dodge the bite of a Sushi by moving right through the gap in its mouth.

Mario swims over to one of the Blooper and flips around it, grabbing it by the sides and giving it a light squeeze so it releases ink and temporarily blinds the other small creatures below it. When that succeeds, he takes the exhausted squid and gently flings it away, knowing full well that it won't be able to do anything else to harm him. The next thing he does is swim up so the next Unagi who charges at him misses and rams itself into the wall, crunching its body into a bent up shape and causing it to float towards the bottom. The Sushi that comes at him next is dealt with via a left hook to the noggin, and as the ink cloud vanishes the small creatures continue their ascension towards him. With one Unagi left, Mario coms up with a quick plan to take out the enemies below him. By turning his body upside-down and rapidly swimming downward, he has assured that the Eel will follow him in the same direction. But along the way it rams through all the lesser creatures, caring not about them when they is a more delicious morsel waiting for him in his sights.

On the way down, Mario notices a tiny glimmer coming from the bottom floor. Even with the vicious Unagi coming from behind, the plumber decides that it is worth investigating. Before he does so though, he turns around and spins his left foot right into the Eel's jaw, dislodging it and causing it to float in place for a moment before it turns tail and swims to safety. Unfortunately for it, it rams into the Jelectros, who electrocute the poor creature, whose body is then used to zap the falling bodies of the small, fainted creatures, knocking all of them unconscious for the time being and in turn wasting the power supplies that the Jelectros had built up, to which they react to by squinting their eyelids in annoyance. With all obstacles removed for now, Mario continues to swim down towards the glimmer, and eventually finds a lever next to a metal grate. Looking up towards the pipes on the ceiling above the surface of the water and then at the grate, the plumber quickly figures out what the level is used for and proceeds to pull it back.

On the floor above where the rest of the heroes are, they are currently sitting on the edge with their feet kicking against the wall as they wait for Mario to emerge, or at the very least do something to affect the water. Soon they notice that the amount of water being pumped through the pipes has been lessened, and with it the water starts to get emptied through the bottom drain without a large enough supply to keep the level steady. Back down with the man in red, he continues to wait for the water to lower to the point where it has reached where he is currently at. However, the lever forces itself back into its original position and the water goes back to coming out of the pipes at the rate it was beforehand. The plumber, confused by this sudden halting of the water drainage, turns around and tries to pull the lever again. No matter his efforts though, it refuses to budge even an inch.

"Well this is just great..." Mario thinks to himself as he lets go of the lever and looks for something else he could pull or push. Though he fails to find anything, he notices that a platform has extended out across the new surface level of the pool, and he quickly swims up to the edge of the platform so he can pull himself onto it. The heroes notice him coming up from below and grab his attention by calling out to him. "Mario, you ok?" Alex asks. As the plumber lifts his head up, the Frog Suit expires and fades away, leaving him back in his original outfit. "Yeah, I found a lever at the bottom that drained the water, but it stopped working all on its own. Not to worry though..." As Mario continues to talk to his comrades, he points one hand out towards a passageway that has opened up in front of him, with a small wooden switch lying not far off to the side of it. "I think there might be another one down this way."

"Alright, we are on our way bro!" To join up with his brother, Luigi makes a brave leap down to the platform he is standing on. Alex flies down, and Driad wraps one of his vines around one of the pipes and after leaping forward he slowly descends to the platform, his body swinging back and forth for a bit due to the forward momentum from his jump. Once they have re-grouped, Mario walks over to the switch and flicks it with his left thumb. After the ground shifts around for two seconds, a few round platforms with fountains in the center pop out of the wall on the right side of the pit, moving through the air until they form a spiral that extends from the edge of the platform to the top floor. Noticing this, Driad is obviously the first to comment on them. "Wonder what the point of the fountains are..." "Probably to make the platforms slipperier and thus harder to navigate." Luigi responds.

"They are already spinning around though...Adding that as another obstacle just seems cruel." "Well, its not like these temples are supposed to be easy..." Mario responds to Driad's over thought observation. "Speaking of which. Luigi." The man in green flinches and walks over to where his brother is at, his arms held near the waist as he waits for what he has to say. "Did E. Gadd tell you about the inner guardians?" "That is something he neglected to mention, actually." So as the heroes walk down the passageway, Mario gets Luigi up to speed on all they know about the inner guardians, so by the time they reach the room at the very end of the passage he will have caught up with the rest of the group as far as information goes. "Ok, now I got to ask...Why can't we just ask E. Gadd to whip us up something that'll allow us to grab the stone without actually touching it with our hands?"

The man in green turns towards Driad, waving his left hand out as he asks him something related to the question he just mentioned. "After all, the Elemental Overlord never told you that only a living creature had to touch the stone for it to activate, right?" "While it is true that he never mentioned that to me, I don't think we can really find a way around the defense mechanism." The Crayzee Dayzee responds with his vines held behind his head. "How come?" Luigi remarks while scratching the top of his cap. "Well you weren't around to see it Luigi, but Mario had to touch the Grass Stone in order to split the seas so we could even get here." Alex says. "I would imagine that we will probably have to utilize the powers of the stones to access later temples, so touching them is an inevitability." "So what you are trying to say is that it would be best to just get the battles out of the way in here instead of risking the creature sealed within the stones going on a rampage in a populated location and harming/killing any innocents...Makes enough sense to me, glad we clarified this now, thanks."

After Luigi and the other two have finished up their little chat, they notice that Mario has been strangely silent. This is mainly because he is looking at the room, particularly the shallow pond in front of them that has a series of mines set up in a 10 x 10 grid. On the other side of this field is another doorway, which it seems can only be opened via the button on the lone pillar in the center of the mines. "Not a problem. I'll just fly over it." Alex says, cracking his knuckles in front of his chest and shaking his shoulders before leaping into the air and moving towards the button in the center of the room. Before he hovers over the mines though, an aerial sensor goes off, and hundreds of lasers spread out across the room above the mindfield. The boy quickly holds his feet out and halts his advance, flipping back and landing in front of the other heroes just in time for the lasers to de-activate.

"Ok...I guess we will just have to figure out how to deal with the minefield." He dully states with a sweatdrop trickling down his forehead. "That should be easy." Luigi says, holding one arm out as a way of telling Alex to get back as he preps some electricity in his left pointer finger. Once near the minefield he dips his fingers into the water and sends the power of the Thunderhand coursing through the area to short circuit the devices. However, each mine summons forth a barrier that causes the electricity to flow harmlessly across them. "Well darn..." The man in green says as he squints his eyelids and begins to lift his body up. As he does so though, he hears a faint pitter sound out in front of him. Looking up at the ceiling for a moment, he notices that there are droplets coming down from specific areas at random intervals.

Thinking that there is some importance to the whole thing, Luigi stays attentive about which mines the drops fall on top of. Once he has memorized them all, he hops out onto the first mine in front of him. Sure enough, it isn't set off by his presence, nor are the lasers that Alex had previously encountered. The man in green then goes up, left, left, up, up, right, down, right, right, up twice, left, up, right, presses the button to the open the door, then goes right, and up until he reaches the end of the room. He then turns around with another hop and wiggles his fingers to tell the others to follow him. "Just go the same way I did guys." Of course, that's easier said then done, for the other heroes were so busy conversing with each other that they didn't notice the beginning of the pattern. But luckily, Luigi notices their nervous approach towards the minefield and, like the nice guy he is, tells them the order.

"Thanks Luigi." The gracious Mario says as he is the first to traverse the mines, followed by Alex and Driad not long after that. When they have all gathered in front of the doorway, Luigi presses another button near it that drains the water and sends the mines plummeting into a pit, which is quickly sealed up by a blast door so the resulting explosion down below doesn't hit the heroes as well. "Alright, one room down. Lets see what the next one is like." After the Crazyee Dayzee says that, the group enters the next room. Amazingly, there is no puzzle to be conquered in this area. There is only a small staircase leading to a small, winged altar where a waterfall drops its water down into, which then gushes over and creates a lake around the platform supporting the holy relic. "Huh...How serene." Alex notes, but as suspicion rises he places one hand against his chin and starts to rub it. "Too serene..."

Alas, there is nothing to worry about, as Mario soon demonstrates. The plumber walks over to the altar and dips his hand into the cup, finding a lever that he gives a light tug. A quick tremor is felt coming from the main room, and the waterfall immediately stops flowing. "Alright, looks like our work here is done for this floor...Lets head on back and deal with the next one." As he speaks the man in red pulls his hand out of the water and shakes it a bit to dry it off, and then joins back up with the other heroes so they can make their way back to the pit. Once there, they find that the water has been completely drained, and some spiral platforms have appeared to lead the way down to the next passageway that has opened up a few feet above the floor of the pit. Thankfully, there are no fountains active on this set, so the heroes are able to jump down to where they need to go with relative ease.

The passage they go down afterwards is incredibly short, but the room at the very end of it is the exact opposite of it in terms of overall size. With an ankle deep pool that has lily pads spread across its surface lying in front of them, the heroes see a three-tier fountain with a gentle stream of water coming down from the tip of it. Floating harmlessly above the structure is pristine ocean-blue stone, the object that the group desires to obtain. "Another easy temple...Guess the only difficult part is fighting the guardians. Well, I guess we-" "Should stand still while I swipe the Water Stone from right under your nose, Whiter!" Without warning, Joe Dark flies in through the passageway, speeds overhead past the heroes, and lands on the top rim of the fountain with his body turned so he can glare down at the group, his arms drooped behind him as he begins to laugh quietly to himself.

"Joe Dark?" Mario, Alex, and Driad yell out in unison. Luigi, having heard nothing about this kid, only looks on with a confused expression. "Who?" He says with a normal pitch. "Oh, I see you recruited that green chicken into your ranks. Oh well, in the end he will just be another victim for defending you Whiter..." "How did you recover so quickly?" Alex blurts out in an angered tone. "And how did you know that we were here?" Joe Dark responds to his foe's vicious sounding questions by increasing the volume of his laughter and rearing his head back to increase his range. "Answer me damn you!" The boy impatiently exclaims with his teeth tightly grit. Joe Dark stops laughing for a moment and returns to his normal posture. "Oh very well. You want to know the answers? Then I'll tell you, just to see your little faces squirm. I was saved by someone in a forest, healed up, just like new...She overheard me murmur your name, and struck a deal with me. In exchange for bringing her one of the Elemental Stones, Cackletta promised me that I would be given the power necessary to end all of your lives!" The name of the witch forces a reaction out of Luigi, who instantly recognizes the name and follows the rest of the heroes in declaring their surprise. "Cackletta?"

_Next Chapter: Battle in the Flooding Palace_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: A Rush to Live**

"Are you insane?" Alex says, his fierce tone being used to describe the emotions that he is feeling in regards to the revelation that the mysterious Joe Dark had declared his alliance with the vile witch Cackletta. "Alex is right. Whatever ridiculous grudge you may have against him, it's not worth it to trust someone as manipulative as Cackletta!" Despite Mario's stern warning, Joe Dark simply rolls his eyes and laughs. "Does it look like I give a damn?" He says with a toothy grin, which causes the plumber to scowl and prepare his body to fight, holding one arm out in front of himself while crunching the fingers in his other hand into the shape of a fist and placing it near his gut. "Listen, I know we got off on the wrong foot before, but I am willing to give you a second chance considering how you are a well-known hero in this world Mario. Let me kill Whiter without any resistance, and I promise not to kill you and your friends."

Even if his extended hand and deeply sincere tone of voice, Mario isn't going to have anything to do with Joe Dark's demands. "No deal, I am not going to condone your insanity Joe Dark!" "Is that so?" The evil boy retracts his hand in disappointment, his grin turning into a frown as he shakes his head back and forth. "Well, such a pity that you have chosen this road. But at the same time, you are in luck, seeing as I can't do anything to you quite yet. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to meet with that green-skinned sorceress to claim the power I so rightfully deserve!" As Joe Dark gets ready to depart from the area with his hand ready to place the Water Stone into his pants pocket, a bright blue light is exuded from the object, which covers the room in its entirety and takes the boy holding onto it completely off-guard. "What is this?" He exclaims in surprise. The heroes, knowing what is about to happen, cover their eyes with their arms.

When the group can tell that the light has faded from view, they moves their limbs away to see just who the inner guardian of the Aqua Palace is. Hovering above the now de-activated fountain is a silver rectangular box with various shades of blue mixed into its texture. Its two square yellow eyes has a couple of black orbs floating around inside the glass, the robot seemingly incapable of keeping them in one place so it can focus on the heroes. There are eight hoses sticking out from the left and right sides of its body, each one flailing about. Joe Dark, having become blinded by the light, is struggling to regain his vision as he holds his opens hand out in front of his face. With his eyelids blinking rapidly, he does notice something off about what he can barely see. "Where is the stone? What happened to the damn stone?" He furiously asks.

He then looks up, and with his capability to clearly see now returned he notices the robot. Without a single clue about the functions of the Elemental Stones, he mistakes the being for a thief, and clenches his fingers tightly into the shape of a fist. "You mechanical nuisance! How dare you rob me of what I had earned!" The robot, having no visible hearing devices on itself, does not hear the evil boy's cries. Instead, it runs a diagnosis on the temple, sensing something amiss besides the obvious presence of the heroes. "Restraint E.O.S. has been eliminated...Water levels at minimum...Running procedure options...Outer Guardian Gecko Hydra's lifeforce has been TERMINATED...Interlopers confirmed...Preparing to-" Before the robot can finish its monotonous speech, Joe Dark thrusts both of its fists into its underside, the thick armor causing his knuckles to become damaged from the impact and alerting the robot to his existence.

As the evil boy unflinchingly pulls his fists back and growls, the robot spins around and moves its eyes down to scan him. "Damage to armor: Minuscule...Ferocity Level of Target: High. Situation Resolution Chosen: Forced Expulsion..." Without warning, the robot lashes its hoses out and wraps them all around Joe Dark's arms and his body's mid-section, which also takes the heroes by surprise. The robot then turns itself around as the evil boy squirms around trying to escape. "Let me go you infidel, I will not be denied, especially not by an emotionless machine like you!" As he gives the being a piece of his mind, Joe Dark successfully manages to slip his left arm out of his binding with his dagger gripped tightly in the hand. He then cuts two of the hoses apart with one fell swoop, which incites a reaction from his captor.

"Damage to Limbs: Major! Advancing to Resolution A.S.A.P." With great haste, the robot slams Joe Dark into the top of the fountain, breaking the structure apart slightly before he dips his remaining hoses into the water, causing some panels to retract in the ceiling. With the way now open to the skies above, the massive barrel of a cannon rises slightly out of the palace. As the drenched boy is about ready to pick himself up and attack the robot, it uses its hoses to pull water from the fountain and envelop his target within a tight bubble. With all preparations made, the robot activates the mechanism with a few words "Pressure Cannon Release!" The barrel then continues to rise at a slow pace, this action causing air to be pulled out of the palace and suck the helpless Joe Dark into the cannon, the robot itself being too heavy to even be budged. The panels are then quickly shut, and moments later the water bubble keeping the evil boy trapped is launched out between the lips of the barrel. Once high enough, the bubble bursts, expelling its hostage and sending him flying towards the ground in the distance, all the while his angered screams echo through the skies.

Back in the temple, the robot turns to the heroes, who watched in awe as it quickly dispatched Joe Dark with minimal effort. Worrying that they might be the next victims of the cannon, they inch back towards the passageway they had come through, their bodies in battle poses as they await some sort of response from the robot as it slowly approaches the center of the pool. "Scanning Threat Level of Enemy Targets...Cautious Movements Detected, Threat Level Determined to be Average. De-activating Solution Resolution: Forced Expulsion." Hearing that, the heroes stop moving, and as their rapidly beating hearts decrease their pace they each breathe a sigh of relief. However, this moment of ease is not to last, for as the robot's eyes glow the temple begins to shake violently. "Solution Resolution: Restoration of Temple...Process Initialized. Begin flooding of premises now!"

This news causes the heroes to simultaneously flinch, their eyelids thrusting open as their pupils shrink in surprise. At that very moment, the fountain begins to release a torrent of water, the water level quickly rising to the point that it is up to the heroes' kneecaps in a matter of seconds. "We need to get out of here, pronto!" Luigi exclaims, spinning his body around and pointing towards the passage to emphasize their need to escape. Making haste to escape the room, the robot's eyes turn red as the motions of its hoses become more violent. "Targets are Attempting Escape. Pursue and Eliminate with Extreme Prejudice!" With the room halfway flooded, the robot moves its limbs behind itself and expels bursts of water from the nozzles to rocket towards the heroes, its body crashing through the walls without a single scratching tarnishing its smooth surface. On the other side, the heroes have already leaped onto the first spinning platform when the robot comes through and quickly chooses to loom over them as the water from the previous room starts to gush out into the pit. As two glimmers are released from the pupils of the robot, the heroes get into their fighting poses as they must now fight against not only the inner guardian, but against the rising water level as well.

**The Robot As Dedicated As The Ocean: Liquidizer Alpha**

To make things difficult for the heroes, the Liquidizer uses its hoses to wet the spinning platforms, causing them to become as slippery as the fountain ones above. It then applies more pressure to the group by sending out concentrating blasts of water from each of its hoses, forcing the heroes to jump out of the way as the shots hit the platform. Alex pulls one over on the robot though by hovering in the air, placing his thumbs into his ears and waving his hands back and forth with his tongue stuck out and his eyelids closed to taunt the being over the fact that the slippery water can't affect him now. The Liquidizer catches these actions from the corner of its eye, and reacts appropriately. "Aerial movement detected. Threat level of target raised to High...Compiling Data to Initiate Counter Measures...Proce-"

While the robot spends time thinking the situation through, Alex flies up and quickly swoops down with his left leg held out, slamming the sole of his shoe down hard onto its head to disrupt its thoughts. With his shoes providing enough padding that the foot itself will not be harmed by attacking the metallic armor of the machine, the boy follows up his drop kick by rapidly assaulting it with a barrage of attacks from his feet, eventually causing its altitude to be lowered to the point that the bottom of it is now on level with the platform. Seeing an open opportunity to attack, Mario leaps forward to avoid the risk of slipping on the platform and delivers one hard punch into the area between the robot's eyes, which not only puts a small dent into the guardian, but also sends it tumbling back towards the wall behind it.

When the plumber lands on the ground, he almost loses his footing and falls off the edge, but Luigi runs over just in the nick of time and grabs his brother's right arm to pull him back. Of course, in his haste to save Mario he himself forgot about the slippery platform, and in turn needs to be saved by Driad lashing his vines out around the man in green stomach and using all of his might to keep him in place. All the while, Alex is paying attention to the water level, which is almost ready to overtake the platform. "Better hurry to the next platform gu-" Before he can finish, the Liquidizer pulls itself off of the wall and uses one of its hoses to hit the boy dead-on with a blast of water, which sends him catapulting into the opposite wall. Though Mario acts out of concern for the boy's health by exclaiming his name, he does manage to take heed to his prior warning and after gritting his teeth in anger for what the Liquidizer has just done he follows Luigi and Driad as they jump to the next platform.

The robot's eyes become a light-blue color as it slinks down into the water, its structure morphing into a gooey form so it can merge with the liquid. Alex, who is currently pressed against the now cracked wall, feels the water rising through the holes in his pant legs and the chill from it forces him awake, where he then uses his hands to push himself off of where is was stuck to and shakes his head to get himself together as he rises up to where the other heroes are at. "You ok Alex?" Driad asks as he notices the boy's sudden return. "Feeling somewhat dizzy, but besides that I'm good. Hey, where did the robot go?" He responds, his question being followed by him holding one hand above his eyes and looking around for the guardian.

The one thing he notices is that the surface of the water below the platform the others are on is bubbling. Before Alex can warn them, the robot pops out and breaks the platform apart easily with its hard head. Luckily, the heroes are able to leap off the chunks of rock and make it to the next platform, where Luigi quickly turns around and fires one quick Thunderhand shot at the robot from the tip of his pointer and middle fingers. To his surprise though, the Liquidizer fires a red beam from its left eye that burns right through the electricity and forces the man in green to backflip out of the way. As he skids a bit across the ground, he slams one hand down against the ground and snaps the fingers of the opposite hand. "I thought I would be able to short-circuit the thing..." He says out of disappointment. Mario tilts his head over his left shoulder to look at his brother. "Don't worry about it, I tried to take advantage of the previous guardian's supposed weakness, but it had something to counter it as well. I would assume that each of the inner guardians are like this, so we will just have to beat this one down with our bare hands."

"Ok." Luigi replies with a nod. With the water level about to overtake the platform, the heroes quickly move on, their nimble bodies avoiding the blasts from the Liquidizer's hoses until they are safe and sound. But they immediately move up to the next few platforms, eventually arriving at the ledge to the first passageway they went through. As Alex flies up to join them, he sees the robot spinning around vertically towards the heroes, its body smashing the platforms to pieces until it is at the ledge, where it then brings his metallic nozzles down onto it to break it apart as well. Mario and Luigi leap forward to avoid the attack and then bound off of the Liquidizer's head once it stops moving so they can achieve the height necessary to reach the next set of platforms. Driad is not so lucky though, for the robot grabs onto him with two of his hoses and brings the struggling flower in closer to scan it with its eyes. "Familiar Energy Signature Detected...Target identified as Driad, out-" Before it continues onward, Alex promptly slams his left fist into the side of the robot to knock it back an inch and give his flowery friend enough time to summon his leaf sword and cut himself free, where the boy then swoops on by and grabs him before he falls into the water.

"Thanks for the save Alex." Driad says in a relieved tone as he turns his vine back to normal. He notices the bruises starting to form on the boy's left knuckles, and out of concern he asks if he is alright. "Might've been a bit reckless by charging in there, but I'm just glad I was able to he-GACK!" The Liquidizer stops the boy mid-sentence by using its remaining hoses to grab both him and the Crayzee Dayzee. Not even bothering to waste time by saying anything, the robot opens a hatch on its head and tosses the two of them into his body, tightly sealing the way out and rising up to catch up with the Mario Bros., breaking apart as many platforms as it possibly can along the way. However, the two plumbers are ready for its arrival, and prepare one of their signature tag-team attacks to strike it.

From the center of the platform, Luigi leans forward with his hands pressed against his kneecaps, where Mario then uses his brother's back to extend his air time and jump forward in an arc. The man in green quickly scoots forward and turns his body sideways with his arms held out as his brother spins his body around with arms outheld. When Mario is directly above him, Luigi jumps up and grabs his feet, where the man in red continues to fly through the air with his propeller arms towards the ascending robot. Once they are directly above it, the two bros. spin around so they are now upside-down, where gravity finally takes hold and Mario brings the combined weight of both himself and his brother down onto the robots head through his palms, which crunches some of the circuits buried underneath the metallic surface and deals massive damage to the body in general.

Though the robot spazzes out for a few seconds, its recovery is swift enough that he rockets to the top floor right before the water level touches him, his sudden ascension rippling the surface below. Mario and Luigi are in front of it with their backs turned after the man in green let go and the two of them flipped up onto the floor. At this point, the water has been raised to its original level and instantly stops there. The Liquidizer's eyes glow with a dark red hue, as its voice becomes grated and more violent sounding than before. "Threat Level of Targets: ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM. Annihilation Mode Engaged. High-Pressure Water Authorized!" With the hoses then thrust out in front of its body, the robot fires thin streams of water that the Mario Bros. promptly dodge, but not before noticing now the water is capable of slicing through the ground with ease, clouds of steam seeping out of the newly made indents to indicate how hot the the liquid is as well.

With the two brothers giving each other a nod to show that they understand each others thoughts, they stand up and activate their hand powers, Luigi's right hand surging with electricity while Mario's left hand is surrounded by a veil of fire. Seeing as their two companions are trapped within the robot's body, the Mario Bros. know well enough that they can't just knock it around too hard, lest they risk harming them as well. With the water streams providing a major threat to themselves, the two of them decide to force the robot to utilize one of its other features long enough for them to get in close. So with one fling of a fireball by Mario and an electric bolt from Luigi, the Liquidizer lowers its hoses slightly and fires two lasers from its eyes to stop the elemental attacks. But due to their prior plans, the Mario Bros. are able to follow up their previous attacks by running forward and uppercutting the underside of the robot, pressing their fists in as hard as they can to try and push through the metal and hopefully break into it to save the others.

However, the Liquidizer catches onto their attack ahead of time, and loops his hoses downward and cocks the nozzles. Of course, the noise made by that preparation forewarns the Mario Bros. of the hoses' presence, and thus they remove their fists from the robot and roll backwards to avoid the water streams as they are fired. Without any sharp objects in sight, the two plumbers have no way of getting rid of the hoses. "Man he is tough!" Luigi notes as he snaps his fingers, somewhat annoyed by the fact that they were incapable of breaking through. "If only we could find the Elemental Stone. Then all we would need to do is separate it from the body to win." "But there have been no signs of it on the outside." The man in green responds to his brother. "So its up to Alex and Driad to find it. Very well, we will do what we can to stall the robot until they either accomplish that task, or we can manage to break through the armor to get inside."

"Near-Critical Damage Sustained...System Errors Detected in Over One-Hundred Programs..." At that very moment, the eyes of the Liquidizer become pitch black as it slams the hoses together and they all fuse together to create a massive serpent-headed aquamarine nozzle, its back then opens up and two rubber pipes fly out towards the water pit, where they rapidly suck the liquid in without there being any visible signs of it going into the body. "Final Attack Mode Engaged. Countdown to Giga Hydra Pressure Cannon in 30 seconds...29...28...27..." The countdown puts the Mario Bros. on edge, as they quickly surround both of their hands with fire and electricity and rapidly toss out fireballs and bolt shots to try and destroy the nozzle before time runs out. However, as light-blue sparkles shine around the nozzle to show its continuous charge sequence, the elemental projectiles hit it and vanish without doing ANYTHING to cause damage. All the while, the countdown edges ever closer to the end. "19...18...17..."

As all of these events have been occurring on the outside, Driad and Alex have been pre-occupied with their situation in almost-completely hollow insides of the robot. After pulling themselves up off the ground, they look at their surroundings to see if there is any way out, but nothing is found. "This doesn't add up. How can this guardian possibly be functioning without any advanced technology running inside of it?" The boy asks with his arms folded in front of his chest. "I'd imagine there is some wiring buried within the walls...That, or the stone is powering it. Speaking of that..." As the Crayzee Dayzee offers his opinion on the matter his friend had brought to the table, he points towards what may be the front of the robot, which Alex catches from the corner of his eyes and turns to look in that direction. Inside of a clear container filled with water in the center of the wall is the Elemental Stone that the guardian was summoned from.

"Huh, that's oddly convenient." The boy states in a deadpan tone as he gently rubs the bottom of his chin. "Why would the robot put us somewhere where we can easily defeat it?" Driad asks to himself as he summons his leaf sword. "Whatever, just give me ten seconds and we will be out of here." The flower warrior holds one vine up to tell his friend to stand back before he proceeds to run forward and pull his weapon behind his back, delivering one strong swing to try and break the container...Only for his body to start rapidly vibrating the moment the blade makes contact with it. As he stutters against his will, he is forced back to where he once was, Alex looking down at his right wrist as if there were a watch on it until Driad stops what he is doing and begins to twirl his head around out of dizziness. "Wow Driad, great going, I can't believe you actually got the job done in the amount of time you said you would do it in." The boy states in an overly sarcastic tone, a playful grin stuck on his face until his friend regains his composure and nudges him in the hip with his left vine.

"But I'm surprised, I thought I would've been able to break through that. What the heck is that container made of?" As Driad tries to think about how to handle the container, Alex cracks his knuckles and walks over to it. He then thrusts his good fist into it to try and break it, his efforts resulting in the bones in that hand cracking slightly due to how thick it is. The pain causes him to grimace, but he has little time to be worried about that as he feels the ground trembling beneath his feet as he pulls his hand back and shakes it around. It was at this very moment that the Mario Bros. had hit the Liquidizer with their uppercuts, and a couple of bumps appear in the floor to prove this fact. "Holy Monty Moley, what is going on out there?" Driad exclaims out of utter confusion. "Must be Mario and Luigi's work." Alex says as he turns around and recognizes that the grooves in the bumps match up with the plumber's gloves.

"Still, how are we going to break through this darn container? If you can't cut it open and punching it does nothing, then what other options are there?" As Alex paces around to come up with a plan, Driad takes two steps forward and puts both of his vines in front of his chest, twirling them around into a cylinder like form as he plants his feet firmly onto the ground. "You might want to stay behind me Alex." The flower warns his friend as a bright yellow light begins to slowly flow through the vines. The boy takes notice of what Driad is doing, and without a clue as to what he is about to do he automatically questions him on it. "What are you doing?" "Remember that ultimate technique I mentioned I could've used to destroy those vines in the Nature Castle? Well, I think now is a good of time as any to bust it out." "Are you certain it will work?" Alex asks, his voice sounding a bit hesitant about the whole plan seeing as he doesn't think that it will end well.

"Probably...About 90% certain, if that eases your mind a bit. It's too late to stop it now anyways since it has passed the halfway point, so please get behind me so I can end this." With some doubt still looming, the boy reluctantly goes behind the flower warrior's back as the light nearly reaches the tip of his vines. "Alright, here we go..." Driad pulls his vines back, the energy being unloaded from the vines and fusing together into a compressed orb that represents a miniature imitation sun. With his legs wobbling slightly, the Crayzee Dayzee swings his body as far to the left as he can and pushes his vine arms together. "Take this!" Before he thrusts his arms out to pound the orb, he pauses in place for two seconds and grimaces as his right leg suddenly bends forward an inch and dew starts to form on his face. But despite this he pushes himself to finish his attack. "HRAAAAH! Wild Bloom Release: PHOTON BLAZER!"

With the timeline of events that have been happening outside of and inside of the robot now been revealed, a return to the Mario Bros. perspective of things is in order, as the Liquidizer's countdown has reached the final ten seconds. Luigi has no idea on what to do against the nozzle, but Mario has one last attack in mind that just might work. With his hands still covered in fire, the overall wearing Italian puts his arms out in front of his body, swinging his left arm up above his head while the right one is swung below his waistline. He then pulls both limbs behind himself, ready to thrust them out as the intensity of the flames increase. Just as he is about ready to launch his attack, a light-red circle appears on the center of the robot's face, the size becoming increasingly bigger which in turn also makes the circle become brighter and brighter until it has become purely white, at which point a massive solar-powered beam burns right through the metal plating of the Liquidizer and moves through the air at speeds so fast that by the time Mario and Luigi are able to react to it it has already broken through the walls of the Aqua Palace and soared over the split seas, where the Toads manage to catch a glimpse of it for ten seconds before it thins out and vanishes.

Back in the temple, Mario lowers his arm as chunks of rock randomly crumble from the wall behind him. The guardian, now lying slanted on the ground, has shut down thanks to Driad's attack damaging it beyond the point where it should logically be able to function. Before the Mario Bros. can walk over and see if their allies are safe and sound, they both climb out of the hole that has been burned into the front of the fallen machine, with Alex holding the Water Stone up triumphantly in his left hand. Glad to see that they are ok, Mario lets out a sigh of relief and brushes his hand across his forehead. As the heroes reunite in the center of the room, the guardian turns into a series of ocean-blue sparkles that are immediately absorbed by the glowing Elemental Stone. "What did you guys do in there?" Luigi asks in an excited tone of voice, as he eagerly anticipates the story behind how they claimed victory against the guardian.

"Heh, you can thank Driad for this one." Alex says with a joyous smile on his face as he pats his flowery friend on the back of his head to congratulate him. "Oh, it was nothing...I'm just glad that we...were able to...win...Uhh..." With Driad's eyelids drooping from exhaustion, his breaths slowly becoming heavier until he suddenly just stops moving and falls flat on his face, his eyelids closing as he drops. This sudden collapse of their friend causes Alex to hold one arm out as his face flinches from shock, while Luigi yells out "Mama-mia!" and Mario kneels down to check up on Driad. Cautiously moving his right hand towards the underside of the Crayzee Dayzee's face in order to lift the head up. When he does so, he is horrified to find that Driad's face is slowly wrinkling up, with the petals and vines following suite due to them dehydrating. "What's wrong with him Mario?" Alex concernedly asks, his body bent forward as his eyes look ready to tear up. "...We need to get Driad to E. Gadd, stat!" The plumber states as he picks the Crayzee Dayzee up and throws him over his shoulders so he can carry him. Without wasting even a second, Mario sprints out of the temple, with Alex and Luigi quickly following behind after exchanging a worried glance with each other.

Meanwhile, in a random desert that lies far beyond the boundaries of Toad Town, Joe Dark can be seen limping around with a couple of cactus needles stuck in his right arm. "Damn robot...I had the Elemental Stone right in my grasp, and lost it to a freaking tin can that appeared out of nowhere! Then I get blasted at high speeds out of the temple, and land in a damn cactus! When I get my hands on that witch, I am going to-" "Ehehehehehehe! Had a little trouble, did we now?" After her familiar laugh has alerted the boy of her presence, Cackletta appears in front of him through a pod shaped portal of darkness, with Fawful hovering not far behind her. "Speak of the devil..." Joe Dark says with his head turned away slightly. The witch places the backside of her right hand underneath her chin and chuckles at the comment. "As much as I'd like to take what you said as a compliment, I know better than to compare myself to him."

"So what are you here for? Cause if you are looking for the Water Stone, then I don't have it." As the evil boy crosses his arms in front of his chest and turns his body around, Cackletta folds her arms into her cloak and grins. "I assume you encountered the inner guardian of the Aqua Palace and got expelled from the temple?" With what she just said being accurate, Joe Dark's eyes widen and he quickly turns himself around to give the witch a piercing stare. "Are you referring to the robot?" He says in a semi-pissed off voice. "Well I'm clearly not talking about the Eel." She responds in a sarcastic tone. "So you KNEW about it and neglected to tell me before I went in?" Joe Dark says, raising his voice as his patience starts to wear thin. "Ehehehe. Oh, I'm sorry...I just assumed that you would be able to live up to the tough act that you had put on for me when we made our agreement. I guess everything you said was simply the bravado of a foolish little boy..."

As the witch pleasures herself by continuing to taunt the angered boy, Joe Dark pulls out his dagger and holds it up to her neck. Fawful is about ready to summon his helmet to defend his mistress when she holds one hand out to halt his movements. All the while, she twists her head to stare down at the boy, her toothy grin and bulging eyes being the most prominent features on her face. "You told me that you would give me the power necessary to kill Whiter and his stupid little bodyguards, yet you toss me into a situation I was completely unprepared for, against an opponent I had no chance of defeating...I admit that I am weak, is that what you wanted to hear you twisted bitch? Now either you stop messing around and grant me what I desire, or I will cut you where you stand!"

With the tension between the two of them at its maximum, Cackletta quickly breaks it by swatting Joe Dark's dagger out of his hand and grabbing it into her right hand once it falls, slinking forward and wrapping the tips of her fingernails around the boy's chin and lifting him up slightly as she points the weapon right at his forehead. "Bold claim, but killing me would just set your goals back even further now wouldn't it?" The witch says as the evil boy scowls at her, his body unflinching despite the close proximity of the dagger, something she is quick to take note of. "Even so, you are certainly showing progress...Perhaps even faster than I had anticipated you would. Your anger towards me, your hatred towards the boy named Whiter and those who defends him, and your lust for power...All these emotions are growing stronger with each second, I can FEEL it. So long as you stick with me, the power you desire will eventually manifest itself, THAT, is a promise. Now, are you going to show some obedience, or am I going to have to stick this unsightly weapon through your skull?"

"Gah...Very well, I will continue to do what you ask me to do..." Joe Dark says with a great deal of reluctance, the answer being satisfying enough for Cackletta that she stands back up and flips the dagger out of her hand for the boy to catch and put away. "But only because I'm that desperate to kill Whiter, got it?" He adds on to his previous statement with a stern tone of voice. The witch, without looking at him, turns around and re-opens the portal of darkness that she and Fawful had come through. "I understand, Mr. Dark...Ehehehehe!" With one last laugh, the witch and her partner enter the portal. Joe Dark stands alone for a few seconds, and is about to enter when he hears a faint whisper speaking to him in his head. _"Come to me...Come to me..."_ Considering the voice to be a hallucination caused by being in the desert sands, the boy pays it no heed as he enters the portal the second before it closes...

_Next Chapter: Under the Sun, Above the Clouds_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Deeprooted Sun**

The stillness of night has fallen across the Mushroom Kingdom. With the skies clear the moon casts its glorious light onto the empty town, the Toads having retreated to their mushroom shaped houses for a good night's rest. But despite how quiet things were, one building still remained active. Inside Professor E. Gadd's lab, the little Crayzee Dayzee known as Driad was lying down in a glass tube, with wires connected directly into his head that feed info about his brain wave patterns to a computer screen nearby. E. Gadd nudged his swirly glasses a bit with his left hand while typing in some of the recorded data with his right. Mario and Luigi have their arms folded in front of them, their minds thinking and worrying about Driad's condition. Alex was pacing back and forth across the metallic floor, his eyes showing nothing but concern over his flowered friend.

"Have you found anything professor?" The plumber in red asks, lifting his head up for a moment as he waits for a response from the stout old man. "Nothing yet. This would've been easy were it not for how unique Driad's appearance is compared to that of other Crayzee Dayzees." "Still, you've been working on him for the last three hours..." Alex is quick to point out. "I assure you, I'm doing all I can Alex. In fact, it will only take a couple of more minutes now. Since we got that bit of time left..." E. Gadd turns his chair around and jumps out of it. "Is there anything I should know about your trip to the Aqua Palace?" Luigi is the first to speak up in regards to the professor's question. "Well, I'd like to thank you for giving me the Frog Suit. Mario made good use of it in the temple." "Wonderful, glad to hear it." The professor responds to his friend's appreciative gesture, and he then turns his head and notices the disturbed expression on Alex's face.

"Something wrong, child?" He asks out of concern. "What disastrous thing happened in his life that would cause him to want to kill me? I swear I've heard of someone with a similar last name as him before..." The boy mumbles to himself, failing to hear E. Gadd in the process. "Alex?" The professor says with a slight raise in his volume, this time around his voice managing to reach Alex's ears and causing him to turn his head around to pay attention to him. "Oh...I'm sorry E. Gadd, I was just thinking about Joe Dark." "I see...Did you encounter him again?" The professor correctly guesses, to which Alex promptly nods to acknowledge it. "This time around though, he said that he was working with Cackletta to get the Elemental Stones..." Mario interjects, lifting his body up off the iron chair he was sitting on and choosing to pace left and right as he tries to figure something out.

"E. Gadd, would it have been possible for Cackletta to have translated the tablet in the small period of time she had to do so?" "It is quite possible that she did. Being a witch and all, I would imagine she would have some experience with ancient runes and the like." "So that means that either Joe Dark, Fawful, or she could ambush us outside or inside any of the temples at any possible time...If she actually did translate the tablet, that is." As he continues to think about the possibility of his thoughts coming true, Mario puts his teeth together and places one thumb in front of his bottom lip. "Worst of all, if Cackletta did choose to go to any of the temples herself, there is a high probability of her taking the Elemental Stone and replacing it with a booby-trapped fake..." *Ding!*

A high-pitched ring breaks the man in reds concentration, and E. Gadd moves over to his computer to check the results of his scan on Driad. The data is shown as a series of equations and algorithms that is unintelligible to all but the Professor. "Hmm...I see, ohohoho, this is very interesting." He murmurs, before turning around and looking at the heroes with a smile on his face. "Good news. Driad is going to live." With that tidbit of relieving information, the heroes release their tensions by letting out a heavy sigh. However, the Professor has one more thing to mention. "But, I must request that he stay here for the rest of the night so I can help his recovery along." As he nudges his glasses, Mario walks over to him and moves one arm around in front of his body as he stops in place two feet away from him.

"What did you find out?" He inquires. "It is quite interesting. I've never seen seen anything like it before in my life...Did you know that Crayzee Dayzees are usually able to keep themselves alive simply by absorbing nutrients from the ground as they walk? Well Driad is different, with his feet made of vines he has to resort to a different method to supply himself with the life force necessary to survive. It seems that during the day, he absorbs the ultraviolet rays of the sun and converts it into energy that continuously feeds and protects him. In a way, the sunlight works like the organs and bloodstreams in our own bodies do. So tell me, did Driad do anything that involved using that very stored sunlight to attack an opponent?"

"...Yeah, he did." Alex speaks up, a moment spent finally realizing the negative implications of Driad's 'Photon Blazer' technique. "When he used that beam attack to defeat the inner guardian of the Aqua Palace, he started it off by pouring some bright energy through his vines into the form of a miniature sun..." With the boy looking very guilt-ridden over doing little to stop his friend from attacking despite his suspicions, the Mario Bros. decide to take over as far as talking to the professor goes. "I wonder if Driad knew about any of this?" The man in green ponders. "Maybe he didn't, maybe he did. Either way, I would sincerely suggest saying nothing about it to him." "How come?" Mario retorts to the elderly man's request. "Just so he doesn't end up worrying too much about what he did. From the sounds of things he saved your life, and don't you think it would be wrong to turn triumph into despair?"

Seeing a point in what the Professor is saying, the Mario Bros. nod their heads in agreement, and Alex does the same a few seconds later after he has walked over to the tube where Driad is currently at. "So what are you going to do Mr. Gadd?" The boy asks. "Ohohoho. I have an invention in mind that'll give your friend a consistent supply of sunlight, even when the moon has risen above the kingdom. From what I've seen, he loses some of that energy he has built up during the night. But if he is given energy during that time, then he will have enough stored within his body to perform that one attack of his without worry. Until I get it up and running though, I will activate the solar lamps in the tube to keep his health steady. So for now, go home and get some rest. Driad will be back to normal in the morning, I promise you that. And don't worry, I'll also get the location of the third temple translated by that time as well."

"Alright then. Have a good night Professor, and know that you have our absolute faith in your ability to save our friend." Alex says as his message of departure, while the Mario Bros. both shake E. Gadd's hand and wish him adieu. Then, with nothing else noteworthy to say, they leave the lab and find themselves directly under the lights of the starry night, not a single soul besides themselves around to look at this spectacle in the sky. "Well, now that that's over with, there's something I got to check up on real quick over by the docks. Luigi, can I trust you to guide Alex back to our house?" "Sure thing bro. Whatcha gonna do?" The man in green asks as Mario turns around and walks away from him, his right arm raised beside his head. "Just want to make sure that the sea has gone back to normal. If I'm not back by the time you've fallen asleep, then have a good night's rest and I'll see you both in the morning."

After the red plumber has eventually vanished from sight, both Luigi and Alex make their way across town to the lone green pipe that leads to the Mario Bros. house. During this period of time, the boy takes this opportunity to strike up a conversation with the man in green. "So Luigi, how has life been going for you lately?" He says, this simplest of questions being a good starting point for their talk. "Hmm?" Luigi murmurs, expressing his surprise in regards to Alex's sudden question. "Well...I suppose things have been good." He says with his head turned to show the boy that he has his full attention. "I recently bought this luxurious two-story mansion as a summer home for me, my bro, and all of our friends to hang out in, and I also placed third in the 'Double Dash' Grand Prix alongside Daisy. Speaking of her, I suppose you heard from Mario that I've been dating her lately, right?"

"Actually...No, he didn't. I mean, he DID say you were in Sarassaland, but I just assumed that you went there for a friendly visit." Alex truthfully responds as the two of them reach the town square and take a left at the center. "I see. Either way, we have been enjoying a steadily building relationship lately, so all-in-all my life has been going swell. How about you? How is life on Earth?" "Peaceful, actually. Guess that's one of the benefits of living in a mountain range, you never have to worry about anyone disturbing you. Plus, I also get to take nature walks through the environment in the morning, which is what I was doing before Mario showed up to bring me to this world." After the boy has answered his question, the man in green nods his head with his a smile plastered onto his face. "That sounds lovely. If we get a chance later on, you and I should take a stroll through the Mushroom Kingdom. Then you can see some REAL beauty, trust me on that one."

"I will remember to take you up on that offer, thank you Luigi. Now, I have one more question to ask you." "Yes?" Luigi says with one raised eyebrow as he is the first to approach the green pipe near the gateway out of town. "When did you become so courageous? I half-expected you to have one of your famous freak outs when you saw the outer guardian of the Aqua Palace." After his comment has been made, there is drawn out period of silence between the two heroes, as the man in green continuously raises and lowers his right arm and opens and closes his mouth while trying to come up with something to say to the boy. When he can't bring himself to respond, he looks at his right arm and quickly improvises an excuse. "Oh would you look at the time, we really should get back to the house because I need to...Have my doctor recommend cup of coffee at this exact minute. Yeah..." "Hey wait a seco-" As Alex puts his left arm out with his pointer finger being the only one raised, he finds suspicion in his friend's statement, but before he can say anything Luigi leaps into the pipe, leaving the boy frozen in place by himself with his mouth wide-open mid-sentence. With a return to his normal posture and a shrug of his shoulders, Alex decides to forget about his question and follows Luigi into the pipe so he can get some sleep.

Meanwhile, at the docks area, Mario is standing all by his lonesome on the edge of the boardwalk. Despite his earlier concerns, it seems as though the waters has already been restored to its normal self, with neither the split nor the temple being visible. "Thank goodness." He whispers. As the gentle waters sway via the breeze of the cold winds, the plumber gets up and starts to head on back to his house to sleep, the many events that had transpired that day finally taking its toll on him. Before he passes by ClubWii, he senses something amiss. A chill goes down his spine as he feels as though someone is watching him from afar. He turns his head to the left, being careful to not make his supposed watcher aware of his suspicions, but finds not a single trace of anyone or anything. After a momentary pause to gather his thoughts, Mario chalks up his worries to stress from running around so much in one day.

But as it turns out, he wasn't being unreasonably paranoid. At that very moment, as the plumber went along his merry way, his very movements were being monitored on a crystal clear computer screen, it being one of many found in a spherical room. Other screens show images of various locations on the planet, from the dark Forever Forest to the famous DK Island, the futuristic Space Land to the sky domain Nimbus Land, and even the lava-surrounded castle of the Koopa King and the holy sanctuary in Star Haven are visible on them. There is someone sitting in a chair watching everything unfold across the planet, their two mechanical arms rested on the arms of the chair. Behind him, a door opens and closes, as the sound of footsteps clanking on the metal floor can be heard. "Sir, you called for me?" A deep, professional sounding voice asks, the mysterious person in the chair flipping their left hand around and moving his fingers as he prepares to speak.

"Glad you could come Lieutenant." A gruff voice responds, his company walking up a small staircase so he is standing behind him only one step away from the top. "What are you looking at tonight? Things have been pretty peaceful as of late, is there something I should be concerned about?" The deep voiced person asks. "In a way, yes. Have you ever heard of the legacy of the Elemental Overlord?" "A couple of times, but I merely thought that it was a rumor being spread about by some crazed researches, so I never paid them much heed. You telling me that there is some merit to what I've heard?" "That and more Lieutenant. Events have already been set into motion like the tablets foretold that they would. And the Mushroom Kingdom's famous hero Mario has already met up with the boy that the legends spoke of." "Is that why you are keeping an eye on the monitors, Commander?"

After the second voice refers to the first person by his title, they let out a slight chuckle. "Ha...Its not wrong to question my motives right now Lieutenant, but I'll reveal my reasons in a moment. Now you see, in the span of a day they have managed to acquire two of the Elemental Stones necessary to get into the Origin Temple, and tomorrow they will be departing for the third temple, the location of which I already know about." "So are you gonna assign me to join up with them to assist?" "Not yet Lieutenant. After all, where they will be going, Mario will probably end up teaming up with an old friend of his anyways, so it wouldn't be the best idea. Plus, there is someone else we have to be concerned about..." The first person uses their hands to type something up on the keyboard in front of him, and the computer screens change to show pre-recorded footage taken from Toad Town in the morning. In particular, the battle between Alex and Mario against Cackletta and Fawful is shown.

"Sir, what are you showing me? There is no way that those two could possibly be alive anymore." The second voice says, his body taken aback by this startling bit of news on screen. "For a witch, it wouldn't be hard to revive someone else with some dark magic...But that would imply that Cackletta was alive after Fawful's death to bring him back, which is impossible. No matter how strong ones magic could possibly be, there is not a single spell that would allow one to be revived after their own death. As crazy as it sounds, I know that for a fact. Either way, both of them are factors in this equation that we cannot ignore. At the same time though, I am not going to take preemptive action against them until I've analyzed their movements for a bit. But yes, now that I've told you about what is going on, I would like to ask you to do something for me the next morning."

"Yes Commander?" The second voice says without hesitation. "Go into the archives and look up Report #1981. That'll tell you all you'll need to know about my research on the Elemental Overlord's legacy." "Understood sir." "Excellent, you are dismissed. Hope your dreams are pleasant tonight, Lieutenant." By his superior's orders, the Lieutenant gives him a salute and heads off for the night. Once the door has shut on his way out, the Commander quickly types something else up on the keyboard and the screens change to reveal a snapshot of Cackletta and Fawful's encounter with Joe Dark in the Osagi Woods. He tightly grips the rim of his chair's arms and scowls. "What are you planning now you stinking hellspawn? No matter what it is, I will do everything in my power to finally put you down in the name of vengeance..."

In an ash-covered, nearly sunlight devoid rocky land that exists far away from the Mushroom Kingdom, there is a menacing stone castle that sits on the edge of a lava bed, the open-mouthed face of its owner placed above the gate as a way to ward off any weak hearted intruders. Inside the structure's deep, damp corridors there is a small, wrinkly creature riding around on a broomstick. With foggy glasses on its face, a saggy blue cap on its head, and a blue robe covering the rest of its body minus the arms it should be as plain as day that this creature is an experienced and powerful wizard. The truth of the matter though, is the exact opposite of the description just given. "Oh dear, I need to find the master quickly!" He says in a raspy, somewhat high-pitched tone of voice as he passes by a set of lit torches on the pillars around him. Eventually, he comes across a giant, metallic red arched doorway. "He better be here...I've already barged into five other rooms, seen things someone of my age doesn't need to see..."

After pulling the front of his broomstick upward, the creature charges straight forward, the two parts of the door being flung open with incredible ease. But it only takes a second for him to collide with the back of a large, pointed object and is knocked off of his broomstick onto the ground with a thud. After picking his dizzied head off the ground, he looks up to see what he hit. Panic overcomes him and forces him onto his feet as he notices that he just hit the back of an emerald green, yellow-spiked shell. "Forgive me for hitting you sire, I was just in a rush to find you." As he apologizes over and over again, the owner of the shell turns around, revealing himself to be a hulking, scaly Koopa with a couple of horns and some raised red hair on his head. His identity should be obvious, for he is the archenemy/sometimes ally of Mario, the King of the Koopas, Bowser.

Upon noticing his associates presence below him, he folds his bulky arms in front of his chest and glares at him with an expression of annoyance. "Oh, its you Kamek." He says with a bit of a snarl in his deep, beastly sounding voice. "What do you want? I was in the middle of my me time. It's not every day I get to flex my excellent muscles in the mirror after all." Once the Magikoopa has regained his composure, he nudges his glasses and musters up the courage to lift his head up to look at his master. "Lord Bowser, I have come to report some intel gathered by our underwater troops positioned near Toad Town. Mario has been sighted on the move near there recently, apparently he, Luigi, and two other unidentified figures were walking along the ocean floor."

When he hears the name of his mortal enemy, Bowser's eyes widen and his arms are put out in front of his chest. After his retainer has finished, there is a couple seconds of silence as he waits for a response from his master. "Lord Bowser?" The Koopa King gets over his surprise and some light flames appear in his mouth, which worries Kamek due to his master's angered glare. "L-Lord Bowser?" When there is no answer to his desperate plea, the Magikoopa takes a couple cautious steps back, only for the Koopa King to lower his head and open his mouth up wide to torch him with a large flamethrower. This attack lasts five seconds before he relents and closes his lips, proceeding to close his eyelids and stomp his left foot onto the ground repeatedly in front of his soot covered retainer.

"GRAAAWWWHHH! What did I tell you Magikoopas about telling me when and where Mario goes during times where I haven't kidnapped Peach? I almost chose to fire Kammy over this matter a while back, so you better have something important to say in addition to that or I'll have you scrubbing the floors of the castle for the next six months Kamek!" After Bowser has calmed down, Kamek shakes his body once to remove the soot. "Well, here is the thing. Most of our agents fled the scene because they sensed suspicious activity in the waters. The few brave souls who stayed around caught a glimpse of some sort of...Chomp-Eel hybrid fighting the Mario Bros. and friends outside of a hidden temple. Not only that, but a beam powered by the light from the sun split the seas in half and allowed the heroes to walk on the ocean floor in the first place."

Taking this information into consideration, Bowser finds something irritatingly familiar about it all, his mind aching as he tries to recall just where he heard it all before. With his arms folded into his chest and his head bent down with his eyes closed, the Koopa King mumbles a few things that are overheard by his retainer. "Creature outside a temple...Sunlight splitting the seas..." "Something the matter sire?" Kamek asks out of concern, for he has never before seen his master thinking about something before. "Oh, I also forgot to mention this too. You might not believe this, or rather you might not want to believe this, but there have been reports that...Cackletta has returned." Suddenly, the Koopa King returns to his normal pose and roars, which almost causes the poor Magikoopa to have a heart attack. "CACKLETTA?" The beast exclaims with a furious tone.

"You mean that stupid witch who kidnapped my lovely Peach's voice, had her stupid minion blast one of my ships, stole my castle, brainwashed my kids and servants, and POSSESSED MY BODY? THAT CACKLETTA?" "Gulp...Y-Y-Yes, s-sire?" Kamek says after a quiet squeel, really uncertain about whether his answer is the right one or not. Surprisingly though, Bowser calms down almost instantly, like the news really doesn't affect him that much. "Well, whatever, Mario and greenie can take care of her just like before. And if she does come near me or my property again, I'll just pulparize her face into putty!" "Pu...Pulparize, Lord Bowser?" "Its a new word I came up with. Pretty cool huh?" Before Kamek can open his mouth to object to the absurdity of the word, Bowser gives him an answer himself. "Of course its cool, now come on, we are going to the castle's archives! There is something there that I have to check for myself..." With his order given, the Koopa King walks out of the room, his thunderous footsteps being heard even after his body has disappeared into the corridor's shadows. The Magikoopa reluctantly gets on his broomstick and floats down after him. "What am I about to get myself into...I seriously need to consider retirement someday..." He groans.

_Next Chapter: The City in the Sky, and its cheerful Prince!_

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><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

**Well, now I've finally caught up on all the script format chapters. However, last night I skimmed through Chapters 12-19 and found myself disappointed by the quality of them. As such, I will be doing more than the simple spelling and grammar modifications that I said I would for that set. However, I will still try and keep to my schedule of uploading one chapter a day. Be warned though that due to school starting up tomorrow, there IS a slight possibility that it may take two days for a new chapter due to a work overload. For all the readers out there, I thank you for your patience and hope you continue to enjoy this story.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The Return to Nimbus Land**

Dawn cracks on the Mushroom Kingdom; with the sun slowly spread its rays across the grasslands. Dew has set on the grass' blades, with the sun shining through the drops, making them shimmer brightly. In a humble little wooden house on the far end of Toad Town, Alex is currently working on breakfast, flipping a flat piece of batter in a pan with a spatula while whistling a tune to himself. He then places the pan down onto the stove top to let it warm up so he can flip it again. The boy has been up for two hours now, with the Mario Bros. still sleeping soundly in their room. "Almost done...I'm surprised how easy it was to make pancakes in this world, even though the ingredients are substantially different than on Earth." Once he is done talking to himself though, he looks up at some of the batter that has stuck to the ceiling, its gooeyness slowly dripping down onto the counter.

"Heh, I'll make sure to clean this all up after I've eaten." He says with an embarrassed smirk before he looks back down at the pan and continues to whistle. After a minute or so more work, the last pancake is done, and as he uses the spatula to move it onto a plate where the other six are at Mario comes into the room. The plumber lets out a quiet yawn due to just awakening, stretching his arms into the air as a couple smacks of the lips alert Alex to his presence. The boy turns his head, his warming smile being the first thing Mario sees once his vision has come into focus. "Oh...Mooorning Alex." The plumber says, a second yawn coming on and causing his pronunciation of the "o" in morning to get stretched out.

"Greetings Mario. Did you sleep well?" The boy says in a cheerful tone of voice. "Yeah, for the most part...The soreness in my muscles made it difficult to fall asleep at first, but once I got over it nothing woke me up throughout the night." While he talks, Mario sniffs the air, a tantalizing aroma entering his nose and giving him a glazed expression as his tongue sticks out slightly. "That smells delicious..." Like a zombie, the plumber lumbers over to the counter and takes one deep sniff in over the pancakes, his pupils widening as he wraps his hands together and presses them against the right side of his face. "You made these Alex?" He says upon regaining his composure, surprised by the fact that someone of the boys age could make something that smelled as good as those pancakes do.

"Yep. I had to work out a few kinks due to how this planet's eggs and milk are like, but in the end I think I got what I wanted. But yeah, go ahead and serve up. Just make sure to leave two for Luigi, alright?" With a complying nod, Mario and Alex get some plates and utensils out and head to the table with their pancakes to eat. Inevitably, Luigi gets up and comes at as well, and after his brother fills him in on the details he goes to get his own plate so he can fill up on those delicious pancakes. But as he lowers his arm after closing the cupboard door, his sleeves gets stuck on some of batter on the counter, his body being jerked back into the cabinet door once he tries to rush towards the table.

"..." Not knowing just why this has happened, the man in green gets on his feet and tries again, only for the same thing to happen. When Alex and Mario take note of this, they glare at Luigi with their eyelids at a slant. Surprisingly though, Luigi's next effort results in him tearing away from the batter and...Promptly runs into the table with enough force that both he and it crash onto the ground, taking the rest of his friend's meals down with him in the process. Mario and Alex stare at each other with little emotion for a few seconds, then move their heads to look at Luigi with a hint of disappointment over the fact that they couldn't finish their pancakes off. The man in green is stuck against the wall with his head spinning and his rear end sticking into the air, the broken pieces of the table scattered around him and the bitten pancakes placed on his chest.

After the heroes work together to clean things up, they leave the house with their stomachs barely filled due to them having to split the remaining pancakes amongst themselves. Luigi's in particular is already starting to growl, the man in green placing his left hand on his belly and rubbing it with his body barely able to walk straight. "I really need something to eat..." He bemoans. "We will grab a few Shroom Shakes later. Right now, we need to hurry on over to the lab to see how Driad is holding up, and then find out the location of the next temple." Mario responds, and with that his brother decides to just bear through his hunger pains for now. A quick trip through the green pipe outside their house brings the heroes back to Toad Town, where an uneventful stroll takes them back to E. Gadd's lab.

As they walk down the staircase, some clatter is heard coming from the bottom along with E. Gadd pleading to someone. Hurrying to see what is causing the commotion, the heroes are both shocked, horrified, and glad to see Driad swinging around like a maniac across the pipes on the ceiling. They are shocked because they didn't expect their friend to be this energetic upon being revitalized, glad that E. Gadd managed to save him, but horrified because there are what appear to be bullet holes above them and the professor currently has a tranquilizer gun in his right hand. Mario and Luigi run over to the old man, while Alex flies up and tries to calm his friend down with his hands put in front of his chest. "E. Gadd, what the heck are you doing?" Luigi yells out in disbelief.

"Trying to calm your friend down, after I got enough sunlight in him to get him back to normal he accidentally got into my special fertilizer and went bonkers. I've been trying to tranq him for the last hour or so, but it is a good thing that he hasn't destroyed any of my-" As Alex thrusts forward to try and grab Driad, the Crayzee Dayzee swings out of the way while laughing excitedly, a section of the pipe he was just on coming down and breaking some empty beakers along with the table that they were placed on. "...Never mind then." E. Gadd nonchalantly says as he fires a shot at Driad, which misses and puts another hole through the ceiling. "What type of tranquilizer darts are you using?" Mario says, having a hard time believing that a dart with a thin needle should be capable of piercing any metal surface.

"Darts? I'm using bullets here." E. Gadd's calm announcement causes Mario to drop his jaw in utter shock. "BULLETS? ARE YOU INSANE?" "Oh, like you have never used bullets before Mario. Besides, I need something thick to get into Driad's vines so it will work properly." The professor says, firing two more shots in rapid succession that of course fail to hit their desired target. Luigi ducks and covers his ears, the boom coming from the gun being too loud for him to handle. Alex decides that it is too dangerous up in the air for him to stick around, and quickly lands on the ground before he is accidentally struck by a ricocheting bullet. After ten more seconds of continuous firing and missing, E. Gadd clicks the trigger to find that his ammo supply has been emptied, so he flings it over his left shoulder and dips his right hand into his pocket protector.

He pulls out a small latex bag filled with fertilizer and wiggles it up in the air in front of him, using two of his fingers to unseal it so the scent can travel to the Crayzee Dayzee. "You're gonna feed him more of that stuff? We don't need him rampaging across town Mr. Gadd!" Alex points out. Driad smells the succulent scent and twists his head around to look at the bag of which it is coming from. With his frenzied eyes now wide-open and his face frothing at that mouth, he leaps down and swipes the bag right out of his hands, though E. Gadd doesn't even bother to put up a fight. The flower warrior dumps the fertilizer into his mouth, and after shutting his mouth he instantaneously falls onto his back with his eyes still open and a goofy grin adorned on his face.

"Well, glad that is out of the way. Now let me get you up to date..." E. Gadd says, placing his arms behind his back and moving towards a nearby table as the heroes wonder about the professor's lack of care in regards to Driad's current condition. "Ummm, Professor...Is Driad going to be ok?" Alex asks first. "Ohohohoho, yes, he will be fine. I gave him a light dose of sleep medicine, he will be back up in a few minutes, and should be back to his normal self. Anyways, I came up with something to solve his energy problem." E. Gadd pulls a plain ol' clay pot off the top of the table and holds it out in the palms of his hands. Luigi scratches the top of his cap and leans in to see what is so special about a pot filled with dirt.

"Umm...What are we looking at exactly?" The man in green asks, lifting his head to look E. Gadd in the glasses. "Its my latest invention, the S.P.P.F., or the Solar Panel Pot for Flowers in full. I installed some solar panels into the inside of this pot that'll send out the ultraviolet rays necessary to energize Driad's body so long as he sits in the dirt. All he will need to do is press this small button on the rim of the pot and VIOLA, he will never have to worry about losing sunlight at night ever again! It is such a shame that Driad is the only floral based lifeform afflicted with this condition. I could see the properties of this pot being of great value to the populace otherwise..." Luigi takes the pot from the professor's hands and nods to thank him for doing this. Mario and Alex do the same, uttering the words "Thank you for doing this" in unison.

The man in green turns around and walks over to his brother. "I'm going to go drop this off at the house. I'll be back in a few minutes, ok?" "Mmm-hmm." Mario responds. The man in green leaves the lab, and after he has typed something up on his computer E. Gadd turns around and holds his left hand out. "Now then, if you may hand over the iGadd I can give you the location of the next temple. I must admit, the place that this one is near should invoke some nostalgia for you Mario." The plumber pulls the device out of his overalls and tosses it off to the professor, who nearly fumbles the catch before placing it into the computer so the data can be transfered over. It only takes a few second for the process to unfold, and the device is returned to Mario with the map screen already on.

The plumber holds the iGadd up to his face so he can get a better look at the dot. But the name of the town next to it causes him to grin from ear to ear. "Well I'll be darned..." Curious as to just where they will be going next, Alex walks over to the side of his friend and leans his head over to check the map. "What is it Mario?" He says at first, but a glance of the name allows him to understand just why the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom is reacting the way he is. "Nimbus Land? Well isn't this a surprise?" After he has spent a few moments remembering the adventure that took him to that town, Mario notices something off about where the dot is located. "The next temple is floating in the sky? How can that be?"

"I'm surprised that you are questioning that Mario. The next temple is the...Err, Sky Temple. No fancy name this time around, just simple and to the point. As for why its floating as far away from Nimbus Land as it is, I cannot answer that. I'm also afraid to inform you that I have no hint to give you this time around, so this'll have to be something to figure out on your own. But I know you will accomplish your task." "Just one problem..." Alex says with his left hand raised. E. Gadd turns his head to look at the boy with his head tilted. "Yes? What is it Alex?" "To get to Nimbus Land, aren't we going to have a long trip around the Mushroom Kingdom to get to Bean Valley where the beanstalk to there is at?" "I thought you would say that, so I planned things out ahead of time. I called up the taxi service in Nimbus Land and told them that you wished to go there. They were delighted to agree, saying that they owe you a lot for bringing their Prince back to them. If my calculations are correct, the taxi should be outside my lab in ten minutes."

Mario bows his head forward to thank the professor for going through the trouble of getting them a ride to their next destination, and Alex does the same as well once his friend has finished. As the plumber puts the iGadd away, Driad shows signs of movement, a tired grumble coming from his mouth as his head is lifted off of the ground. "My head...What have I been doing?" Almost immediately, Alex turns his head to the left with his eyes looking ready to drip. He then runs forward and pokes Driad on the shoulder to get him to turn around. When the Crayzee Dayzee does this, he is quickly greeted by a two-finger smack on the forehead by his friend, causing his somewhat tired body to stumble back a couple of steps. "Don't you ever think of doing something foolish like that ever again Driad!"

Driad's response to that statement is to take his left vine and smack his friend against the bottom of his chin. Of course, seeing as he just got up the strength of his blow is equivalent to that of a piece of paper. "..." The flower warrior stays silent, blinking his eyelids a few times as he moves his vine arms to the front of his face. He seems confused. "What happened?" He asks. Though his question was not directed towards Alex, the boy feels like he should answer it anyways, and once he has the Crayzee Dayzee's attention he explains the events that transpired since he went unconscious. When all is said and done, Driad is overcome with an immense feeling of guilt, blaming himself for the emotional strain that he assumes his friends went through.

"I...I'm sorry. Had I realized the consequences that my attack would've brought, I would never have used it...Can you forgive me?" "There is no need for apologies Driad. After all, had you not done what you did, none of us would be here right now." Mario interjects, his compassionate heart unwilling to let his friend beat himself up over such a minor issue. "Well, when you put it that way...Thanks Mario." The flower warrior says, a light blush appearing on his cheeks to compliment his smile. "So you don't remember your neurotic episode?" Alex ponders. "My wha-?" Driad dumbfoundedly states, his mouth agape with a puzzled look in his eyes. "Ok good." The boy quickly responds, turning his body around to strike up a conversation with Mario to change the subject before his flowery friend pursues things any further.

"Now that Driad is well, shall we wait outside for our ride?" "Yeah, lets-a go!" The plumber enthusiastically responds, with Driad having nary a clue as to what is going on. "Wait, where are we going?" "I'll explain once we get outside. We will see you later Professor, ok?" Alex says, beginning to walk to the stairway as he waves his hand out to the elderly man. "Very well, I wish you all the best of luck. Ohohohoho..." With the heroes departure, the professor gets back to work. Once outside, they find Luigi has already come back and was waiting for them to return with the front of his foot tapping against the ground. "That was quick." Mario says to grab his brother's attention. "Yeah, well you know me bro. Ah, I see Driad is feeling ok now." Luigi says once he turns his head to look at the others.

"Yep!" The flower happily says. "So where are we going now?" The man in green asks. "The Sky Temple, it's near Nimbus Land." Alex answers. "Oh, so that city in the clouds you talked about before Mario?" "Mmm-hmm." The plumber responds. "So when is our ride getting here?" "Hopefully soon." The boy responds in a somewhat impatient tone of voice, grumbling under his breath as he holds his arms behind his head and glances up towards the sky for any sign of a taxi. "Actually, its coming now. Over there!" Mario says, pointing one finger due south so his friends can see what he is saying. Coming towards them is a two-tier red Taxi cab that is suspended off of the ground by a big, fluffy cloud. It swerves back and forth through the air until the person driving it sees Mario and moves the vehicle around so the door inside is placed in front of the group.

The door then slides open, and waiting for them in the driver's seat is a cloud person wearing blue jeans, a black police officer outfit, and a blue leather hat. He leans his head to the left while keeping one hand on the steering wheel, using his other hand to take his hat off to the esteemed hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. "It has been a long time, Sir Mario. Do you remember me?" "...I'm afraid I don't." The plumber embarrassingly responds after pausing to try and remember the taxi driver. "Ahahaha, it's alright, I'm not offended. I was the one who rode you and your friends over to Bowser's Castle to stop Smithy." With the mention of the events that revealed his significance in Mario's life, the plumber snaps his fingers and finally recalls who the driver is.

"Ah, so that's who you are. I didn't recognize you with that new attire of yours." "Hey, like I said, it's ok. We can catch up on the way there. I don't mean to be rude here, but I actually got a busy schedule to uphold today, so we need to make a quick line for Nimbus Land before the bells can toll. So if you and your pals can just hope right in, we shall be off!" Not wanting to be a bother to the cloud man's plans, the heroes enter the Taxi in a single-file line, the doors closing behind them once Driad has entered. At that point, the group splits in two, with Alex and Driad going to the upper row while the Mario Bros. take the bottom row so they can speak with the driver. Before they can though, he de-activates the brakes on his lovely vehicle and begins to lift off. Once it has levitated off the ground enough, the driver shifts gears and the Taxi zooms off into the sky towards their destination.

As Alex sits on the fluffy seat closest to the stairway, he leans his body towards the window and presses his hands against it to look down at the ground below. "You really can't say you know your planet until you've seen it from above...Even on Earth, I've never once flown this high. Don't you find this all to be breathtaking Driad?" When the Crayzee Dayzee stays silent, Alex turns his head around to see what is up. On the other side of the cab, Driad is staring down onto the ground, kicking his feet against the back of the seat in front of him with a dreary look on his face. "Hey...You ok?" The boy asks, lifting himself up off the seat and standing beside his friend with a hand ready to pat the back of his head to try and cheer him up. From the corner of his eye he notices this, and weakly lifts one vine up to stop him without saying a word.

"...Have you ever had a dream before?" The flower asks, his eyelids drooping down as his somber tone brings about a melancholic atmosphere into the room. "I've heard about them, how they are visions experienced during sleeptime. But up until last night, I never had one. I don't know what caused it to happen, or why I couldn't stop it...Whatever the reasons, the things I saw were...Disturbing." "...What happened in it?" Alex asked, a bit reluctant to do so due to how his friend is feeling. "I...I shouldn't tell you, but...No, maybe you can understand what I'm going through. In my dream, I was a monster...I couldn't speak, I couldn't control myself, I could only watch...Watch as I murdered hundreds of innocent people and creatures without remorse, their blood staining the wooden claws that I wielded..."

"The events were repeated over and over again until I woke up...But each time through things got more and more violent, until eventually my heart was heavy to the point that it should've died out, and I almost felt like throwing up...It was horrid, but at the same time it felt familiar...Alex, is there anything you have to say about all this? Am I going insane, or are these dreams trying to tell me something about myself? Please, I beg you to ease my mind..." But as much as the boy wanted to cure his friend of his despair, he was incapable of relating to his experience. He couldn't tell him to ask either of Mario Bros. about this, for that would be a betrayal of the trust he has put on his shoulders. "...I wouldn't worry about it Driad. Dreams aren't real, and what you went through is actually called a nightmare anyways. Tell me, how much sleep have you gotten throughout your life?"

"Umm...Now that I think about it, I don't really sleep that often. Why do you ask?" Driad inquires, his tone being a bit more upbeat than it was just a few seconds ago. "Well, a lack of sleep does have the side-effect of worsening the dreams you have when you finally do succumb to slumber. Don't worry about it, what you saw has no chance of happening in real life, and even if there is a chance I'll be there to prevent it from happening." The boy puts one hand out in front of him, waiting for his friend to shake it to seal the promise he just made. His spirits uplifted by Alex's re-assurance, the Crayzee Dayzee quickly shakes his hand with his left vine, a gentle smile adorned on his face as he does so. "Thank you Alex." "Not a problem, Driad."

By the time the two of them had finally finished talking, the Taxi has arrived at Nimbus Land, the gears creaking as the vehicle grinds to a stop. "We have now arrived at Nimbus Land, birthplace of Prince Mallow and the home of the famous Cloud 9 Burger. Our next stop for today will be-" As the driver speaks over the intercom, Alex and Driad go to the bottom floor of the vehicle and meet up with the Mario Bros., and they all thank the driver for his generosity before they exit through the open door. The Nimbusians standing outside look at the famous mustachioed man and instantly swarm him once he steps onto the cloudy surface, each one of them asking for either autographs or pictures. It takes the blaring sound of the Taxi's horn to break the mob up and get them to board the vehicle, the driver giving Mario a thumbs up before he shuts the door and flies on his way.

Now that they have arrived at the city in the clouds, the heroes save for Mario take a moment to take in the sights. There are a few wooden huts with stitched together palm tree leaves covering the rooftops, a series of bartering stands where the populace can trade for materials native to the lower regions, and a giant refurnished palace whose entrance is being guarded by two cloud people wearing armor with spears in hand. Even with the sun now closer to them than before, there is a cold breeze flowing through the air that keeps their temperature at a normal level. "Man, I hope Sky Temple has the same atmosphere as this place...It would be a nice change of pace from the other two temples, that's for certain." Alex says with a smile on his face. He then turns to the plumber, who has pulled out the iGadd to check the map again.

"So Mario, you gonna visit Mallow while we are here?" The boy says, the plumber grinning and letting out a small chuckle upon hearing his friend's kind gesture. "As much as I would like to see how he has been faring after all these years, he is a member of royalty now. He is probably involved in politics now, and would thus have no time to spend to see me..." At that very moment, Driad notices the guards conversing with each other, the one on the left staring at the heroes as he leans towards the other one. When they finish, they each nod their heads and begin to walk over to them. Luigi has joined his brother in looking at the device, and as such the group fails to notice the guards coming. "So where is the temple?" The man in green asks, as the Crayzee Dayzee fails to grab their attention from behind.

"According to the map, it should be over there." Mario says while turning his head to the left and pointing in that direction. _"Guys, the guards are coming this way!"_ "Well that's odd, because I don't see anything. And there's no fog out, so the temple can't be concealed, can it?" _"Can you even hear me?"_ "It could be hidden Alex, we have no way of confirming whether it is or not." _"SERIOUSLY?"_ "Luigi, you have anything to say on the matter?" Mario asks, at which point Driad facepalms when the guards finally show up next to them. "Excuse me fair sir, but are you by chance the famous Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom?" The guard on the left asks. Hearing their voice causes the plumber to put the iGadd away and look at them, while Luigi and Alex salute those two brave souls.

"I am he of Mushroom fame, and to what do I owe the honor of having you two loyal guards approach me?" Upon being complimented by such a hero of renown, the two guards place the tips of their right fingers on their lips and giggle to each other, before catching their immature behavior and returning to their more professional posture. "We were ordered by Prince Mallow to greet you upon your arrival. He also said that we were to take you and your friends into the palace for a meeting." "Alright then, can you guide us inside then?" "It would be our honor, Sir Mario." The two guards say in unison, turning their bodies around and beginning to march back towards the palace with the heroes following behind them not long afterwards.

When they are inside, the are instantly greeted by some golden statues of Mario, the Koopa King Bowser, Princess Peach, a young Nimbusian with striped pants, and a doll with a cape. "What are these here for?" Driad asks as he has but one moment to glance at them. "These are statues of the esteemed heroes who freed our land from the rule of that insane woman Valentina. Our Prince is among the statues, as you can see." The guard on the left says. "It was also the first adventure Mario had where he had both the Princess and Bowser's assistance in defeating a villain." Luigi adds to the conversation. "I can guess who those two are, same with the Prince...So who is the doll?" "His name is Geno...Well, that's the name he chose to take while in that body. In actuality, his name was unpronounceable." Alex says, using his broad knowledge of the planet to answer Driad's question.

"Geno huh..." The flower whispers, his body pausing for two seconds before he continues on his way. "What a nice name." After a few more minutes of walking through hallways filled with royal decor, retainers and butlers, the heroes finally make it to the throne room, where a cloud person is standing on the miniature stairway with his body facing the throne itself. There are three tarps on the wall behind it, the left showing the elegant Queen Nimbus, the center one the regal King Nimbus, and the final one on the right showing the young Prince. "My esteemed Prince, your company has arrived. We shall now take our leave..." The two guards says, bowing their heads while bending down on one knee in respect for their sire. After that, the walk out of the room to let him have his time with the other heroes. When the Prince turns around, his full appearance is revealed. His sky-blue/white striped puffy shorts kept in place by a red-brown belt with a silver oval in the center. His dark-pink shoes compliment the same colored curled bundle of hair on the top of his smiling head.

Without exchanging a word, Mario and Mallow walk over to each other and shake hands, acting simply like friends who haven't seen each other for only a week. "How have you been Mallow?" The plumber asks to break the ice between the two of them. "Things have been great for me here Mario! Ever since we defeated Smithy all those years go, I've-" As the two friends catch up on their own lives, the other three heroes discuss their relationship. "I don't get it, shouldn't this reunion be a little more emotional? I mean, from the sounds of things Mario hasn't seen Mallow for years, yet they speak as if they've been keeping in contact all this time..." Driad asks. "It's like this Driad. When they started their adventure, Mallow barely had any confidence. It was through that journey that Mallow was able to find his parents and better himself by modeling himself after the man whose exploits were truly something to believe in. I guess to put it in a less confusing way, by the time everything was said and done, Mallow found a 'brother' in Mario. I'd imagine this reunion is a bit emotional for him when you take that into consideration, but he wants to show his maturity to his 'brother' by not crying."

"Plus there is also the fact that it rains whenever he cries." Alex is quick to say at the end of Luigi's little explanation. The man in green turns to the boy with his eyebrows slanted in annoyance. "I was going to say that..." "Well I should've been the one to cover that issue. Seriously Luigi, it is scaring me how differently you are acting lately, what with you being courageous and...Deep." The boy responds. "Well you know-" Before Luigi can defend himself, Mario turns around and points his hands towards the group. "Allow me to introduce you to my friends." He says towards Mallow, the young Prince still laughing after hearing a riveting tale from his friend. "Guys, this is Mallow, the Prince of Nimbus Land." Mario says, repeating already established information out of courtesy for his friend's royal title.

"My name is Alex Whiter, it is a pleasure to meet you." "My name is Driadius Carnation Aloevera Liondande the First, but if that's too hard to remember you can just call me Driad." "And Imma Luigi, number-a one! ...Well, when you take my brother Mario out of the equation anyways..." "Well, even though I heard about all of you from E. Gadd already, I'm thankful that would politely introduce yourselves to me." Mallow responds, bobbing his head and walking forward to shake the hands of his new friends. When he starts off with Alex, the boy has something to say to him. "Wait, so you've spoken to the Professor?" "Yep! He lived in Nimbus Land for a few months to do some research on our culture, and once he left my Mom and Dad have him their number just in case he needed to ask us about anything else. We received the call last night, and he told us everything we needed to know about your 'Elemental Overlord's Prophecy' quest. When he said that the next temple was going to be near our fair city, I asked my parents if I could join up with you guys once you arrived, and they reluctantly said yes. So I told the guards to look out for you all, and the rest is history from there."

By the time Mallow has finished his greetings, he walks back up to the throne real quick and pulls out a thick, twisted stick from behind it. Mario quickly recognizes it, his eyes briefly widening in surprise. "Wow, your old Froggie Stick. I can't believe you've kept that after all this time." He says. "Well of course. My old father gave this to me, so I've kept it as a memento. That, and its been some time since I've used attack-based weather magic so I'm going to need to help circumvent that problem." The young Prince says before putting the staff into his pants. Confused by his mention of another father, Driad stutters for a few seconds and looks at Alex for some answers, but the boy responds with "Mallow was adopted by a frog and raised thinking he was a tadpole. It's a long story Driad."

"Anyways, speaking of this so-called Sky Temple...I think I might know where it is. Follow me." Trusting in the guidance of their new partner, the heroes follow Mallow through the palace until they arrive back outside. They then go to the edge of the city and look out towards the horizon. The Prince turns his head to the right to look at the Clock Tower, which is about to strike noon. "Alright...Just a little longer..." When the big hand reaches 12, the bells toll, and all of a sudden a wavy formation appears in front of the other heroes. Within seconds, a stone temple materializes, its structure suspended in place by four jet engines attached to both sides. "Whoa!" The heroes say in awe. Mallow is unaffected by the event though, as he turns around and snaps his fingers in front of his face.

"Bingo! Just like every other day!" He says with enthusiasm. "How come it wasn't around before now?" Mario asks the young Prince. "Dunno. No one has been able to figure out the cause, only that the temple vanishes once it hits 1'o'clock. With such a short period of time, no one has really paid it any heed until now." "..." Alex gives things a little thought, and without any effort he figures something out. "The temple appears at the strike of noon, A.K.A. HIGH Noon. The temple is HIGH in the Sky...Argh!" "What is it Alex?" Driad asks. "I bet the Elemental Overlord made it so the temple appears only at noon just so someone's mind would be blown when they figure things out like I just did..." The boy grumbles with an annoyed scowl on his face. "So how are going to get across?" Mario asks. "Just give me a moment..." Mallow says, 'cracking' his knuckles before moving to the very edge and raising his arms above himself, his upper body detaching and hovering in place while a magic disc spreads out between the two halves.

"I command you, oh great skies above! Heed my call!" Dark clouds start to form over Nimbus Land, as magical energies begin to gather in Mallow's fingertips. "Beckon to my will!" Thunder and lightning emerge from the clouds, their size and sound stronger than anyone could've anticipated. "I am your lord, your master, your king!" Five tornadoes suddenly spawn between the temple and the city. "YOU WILL MOVE AT MY COMMAND, YOU WILL HALT AT MY COMMAND! THE STORM FLOWS IN MY VEINS, AND I UNLEASH ITS FURY UPON THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO DEFILE MY WILL!" Inside Mallow's now glowing eyes, the forces of nature stir. From floods to fires, earthquakes to tropical storms, all of these disasters swirl within him as the storm outside continues to intensify. As the heroes begin to panic, even Mario looks ready to run off in mortal fear. "!" The young Prince's pained grunt finally signifies the activation of his technique...

And suddenly, all the dark clouds and tornadoes vanish, as Mallow's eyes and fingers return to normal. He then begins to gently swing them back and forth, a series of clouds moving across the sky to form a long, wide bridge to the temple, all the while he whistles a melody to put himself at peace. Once he is done, his body fuses back together and he claps his hands together to congratulate himself on a job well done. When he turns around, the heroes look absolutely dumbfounded. "...What. Was. THAT?" Mario blurts out. "You mean the storm? Oh, that wasn't really there, it was just an illusion I had created for added dramatic effect." Mallow says, brushing off his friends disbelief like it was nothing. "..." Silenced by that explanation, the heroes begin to walk on towards the temple, Mallow turning around to join up with them without saying anything himself. "We will never mention this again..." Alex murmurs to himself. Thus, they get on the surprisingly solid cloud bridge, ready to conquer the third of seven temples...

_Next Chapter: The Memories Beneath the Truth_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: His Identity Is...**

The walk to the temple has thus far been enjoyable, mainly due to the fine weather the heroes are experiencing. With a few yards left until they reach the entrance, Luigi runs up to Mario and notices that he currently has his arms folded in front of his chest, his head bent down as he seems to be thinking hard about something. "Bro, what are you thinking about?" Luigi asks. Mario stops walking for a moment and turns around to look directly at his brother. "Something has been bothering me lately." Mario says. The man in green thinks about what his brother might be worried about, and comes up with a sensible guess. "Cackletta?" He asks. "No, not her. I was thinking about how coincidental things have been for us so far. The fact that I found Alex as easily as I did, the Sky Temple appearing JUST in time for us, and even Driad's appearance in the woods seems fishy. I'm starting to think that these steps we have been taking were pre-determined by the Elemental Overlord." Mario responds, removing his arms from their position and continuing to move towards the temple with his brother following close behind.

"Didn't E. Gadd say that he had the ability to see the future or something?" Luigi says. "Yeah, but that would imply that he was able to see two-thousand years ahead. And if that's the case, then why didn't he foresee the Dark King going on a rampage and stop him before he had to resort to sealing his powers away?" "Maybe there was a limitation on what type of events he could influence?" "Possibly. I guess there is really no way for us to find out right now, so let us just focus on the matter at hand." "Okie-dokie bro!" By the time the Mario Bros. have finished their conversation, they realize that they had picked up the pace without really attempting to do so. So they stop in place to give the others a chance to catch up, and Driad takes a little jab at the two brothers' hastiness before they continue on their way.

"Something's odd...It doesn't seem like we are getting any closer, does it?" Alex says, noting that the group is still at the halfway point of the bridge despite continuously walking for the last minute. "Well we have been taking it slow." Mallow points out with a hand on his chin. "That wouldn't affect anything. Maybe we need seventy stars to break the spell on this endless bridge?" Luigi interjects, his comment earning him a glare from his brother. "Veeeeeeery funny Luigi." Mario says with a thick amount of sarcasm. But while they argue about this, they are unknowingly being moved away from the temple. Not by a gust of wind, but by the clouds going towards the town like a conveyor belt. "Wait a second..." When Mario stops being annoyed by his brother's little joke, he quickly notices the movement below his feet and after putting two and two together he starts to run to make his speed faster than that of the clouds.

"Hurry up and get moving guys!" The plumber says to alert his friends before it is too late. His warning couldn't have come soon enough, for the clouds are starting to rumble, with the one closest to the edge of the cloud city sinking towards the ground. Without hesitation the rest of the heroes follow Mario across the clouds to try and make it to the end before they fall to their deaths due to the collapsing clouds. The only one incapable of keeping up though is Mallow, whose stout legs make it difficult for him to move. "Yikes, this isn't good!" The cloud Prince exclaims as he is only a few seconds away from falling. Alex, with his head twisted to look behind him, notices Mallow's predicament and skids along the clouds to stop in place and turn his body around. He then leaps forward and flies out to swoop his friend up in his arms, performing a U-turn so he can catch up with the others.

The cloud Prince is breathing heavily, his heart beating fast from the combined force of all that running along with that near-death experience. "Whew...That was a close one...Thanks for the save there Alex!" He says, looking up with a grin on his face as Alex moves his legs around to land on the part of the cloud bridge that is closest to the temple, where the rest of the heroes have ended up at. Save for that cloud, only three others remaining in the bridge, leaving the group stranded near a temple that will vanish once it hits 1. Worst of all, they know what is going to happen now that they've entered the outer domain of the structure. But considering the Elemental Stone that they are going after along with the limited amount of space they have to fight on, Mario soon realizes that whatever airborne enemy comes their way is going to be a pain to beat, since only Alex and Mallow really have any way of combating those type of foes without running the risk of plummeting to the ground floor of the planet.

"So Mario, is there anything specific I need to know about these outer guardians before they appear?" "Didn't E. Gadd tell you about them?" Mario says in response to Mallow's question. "He gave me the bare details, but I thought maybe you would be able to tell me more." "Well, I don't really have anything to say besides 'Be careful', but now that I think about it you should probably use your Psychopath spell to read the enemies' thoughts and perhaps determine a weakness." "Yeah...Funny story about that." The cloud Prince grins while nervously rubbing the back of his head. "I've forgotten how to use that spell..." While he chuckles, Mario frowns and gets into a battle position while keeping his eyes peeled for the outer guardian. "Well that's just great..." He says sarcastically.

Though the heroes assume that their enemy will appear in front of them, they are unaware of the fact that has them in its sights from behind. There is a lone puffy cloud with two beady eyes and a smile on it, and as it wobbles through the air towards Luigi it makes a faint hovering noise. Once it is a foot away from the back, a small hand pokes out and taps him. With his muscles so tense, the man in green reflexively spins around and uses his Thunderhand to zap the cloud as it is slipping away, causing it to split apart into four separate parts that quickly shrink down and vanish. But to his surprise there are about ten other clouds of different colors floating in front of him like a wall. From the second white cloud on the top of the wall pops out a small yellow creature with a blue shell on its back, a Sage vest wrapped on its body and a pair of librarian glasses on its face.

"Battle stations everyone, we got company!" The man in green says to alert his friends, stepping back twice while they turn around and look up at the creature. "A Lakitu is the guardian? That's certainly not something I expected..." Mario says in surprise, knowing better than to underestimate the guardian despite the form it has taken. Before he can toss a fireball at it to start the battle though, it raises its right hand to stop him. "I wish you no harm at the moment brave heroes. If you would be willing to toss aside your hostile behavior, then I would like to speak with you." The heroes are frozen in place, taken off-guard by the Lakitu SPEAKING to them, which is something the other two outer guardians were incapable of doing. "Y-You can talk?" Alex says, stuttering during his speech to express his disbelief.

"Of course I can talk. Did the encounter with my more savage predecessors shape your prepubescent brain into believing that we couldn't, or is it merely because your egotistical attitude is preventing you from accepting that other creatures besides you delicate homo-sapiens are capable of speech?" The guardian says, nudging his glasses upward and looking down at the boy with a disapproving glare in his eyes, the words he chose to speak angering him to the point that he is already gritting his teeth and squeezing his fingers together into a fist to get ready to fight. "What did you say? You trying to piss me off?" "If that were my intention, then I succeeded without any effort. You are welcome to try and use physical means to harm me, but by responding to my verbal analysis with violence you will only manage to prove me right."

Even with the point he brings across, Alex doesn't calm down. In fact, the only thing the guardian has managed to accomplish is entice the boy even further, with Mario holding his right hand being the only thing keeping him from charging in and fighting. So for the moment, he crosses his arms in front of his chest and growls and looks away to paying the Lakitu any heed. Once this has been noticed, the plumber looks at the guardian from the side of his eyes with his left eyebrow raised. "So why do you want to talk with us exactly if you think that all humans have a superiority complex?" Before the guardian can respond to Mario's question, Driad slips to the front of the group and takes a nice long look at the Lakitu, with the shelled creature doing the same. The flower warrior is the one to come up with something to say first though.

"You aren't attacking us...So are you the Good Guardian of this temple?" He asks, his question making the guardian flinch in abject surprise. When he has regained his composure, he looks at the mysterious Crayzee Dayzee and notices something familiar about him. Wanting to see for himself if his assumption is correct, he comes up with a question of his own to ask the flower. "...Tell me, one of petals and vines, what is your name?" "My name is Driad, Good Guardian of the Nature Castle." The flower cheerfully responds. Little did he know, that because of that answer his happiness was soon going to vanish, replaced with feelings of bewilderment and depression. "...Is that so? Why do you speak as if you were a so-called 'good guardian', when your true identity is the same as my own, outer guardian Driadius Carnation Aloevera Liondande the First?"

Driad's eyes widen in the face of the Lakitu's comments, his body subconsciously stepping back as his mind deals with the mass confusion brought on by that news. "W-What do you mean?" He says in a raspy tone, falling to his knees with his head still held up and his arms drooped on the ground. With him in a vegetative state, Luigi steps forward with his arms held out to speak for him. "What are you implying, guardian?" "I'm not implying anything. Driad's reaction has brought truth to my theory. From his vacant expression to his quiet, vocal reaction coming from the backlash that I can imagine his mind is experiencing from the revelation, I can say for certain that he has already underwent the process sometime in the past."

"What process?" Alex asks in an overly demanding tone. "This explanation requires more than a simple sentence. I must first go into a few details about how we outer guardians operate. At the time of creating us, the Elemental Overlord had absolutely no clue as to when the person deemed worthy of succeeding him would come into this world, so to make sure we would be around long enough to stop any malicious souls from obtaining his power he implemented two defense measures into our bodies. One, he stopped our natural development, making us essentially un-aging, immortal, but incapable of getting any stronger. The second measure was the E.M.E.R.G.E clause, or as he described it in an un-abbreviated manner as the 'Element Memory Erasure and Replacement Guardian Emergence' clause. Should an outside guardian lose a battle against a stronger enemy force, then the body of the winner will be changed to fit the element of the temple the previous guardian was watching over, and the loser will forget all memories pertaining to their duties along with most of their powers. This was put into place to make sure that there will always be someone powerful enough to guard the temples at all times, and that the weaker specimens will be allowed to live and wander the world without ever having to know that they failed. Of course, there are a few ways to get around the clause. Humans aren't affected, for one. Second, anyone who already has enough of an affinity towards a certain element can't be forcibly synced to another element. Finally, if a former guardian comes back and succeeds in defeating the new guardian, they will get their memories and powers back and the clause will never activate again. Tell me, who or what was the guardian of the Nature Castle? Was there anything suspicious about its appearance?"

"...It was a Boo." Mario reluctantly admits. "Mario! He is just tricking us!" Luigi objects, to which his brother responds to by holding one hand up to silence him. "A green Boo with vines on its body." "I see, I see...So Driad truly did lose his memories...But from the way he spoke to me, it seems that somehow, a few of them still linger in his mind." The guardian says, murmuring most of it to himself as he tries to determine the reason as to how Driad could still have some memories left. "...How pitiful." The Lakitu states, his arms placed onto the edge of his cloud as he glares down at the mind broken Crayzee Dayzee. "Look at you now, the truth has left you in a mortified state, unable to function. Why are you even still alive? There is no purpose to your existence now, and since it is clear that the new guardian of the Nature Castle has already perished that means you will forever be a shell of your former glory. You have nothing to cling on to but false memories of being a 'Good Guardian', a fabrication created by fragmented memories of a bygone era. Allow me to liberate you, its the least I can do."

The Lakitu pulls a white, spiky orb out of his cloud and raises it above his head. The wind blows by and surrounds the orb to increase its power, and flings it down at the motionless Driad. But there to save his life is Mario, who without hesitation leaps in front of the Crayzee Dayzee and effortlessly backhands the "Spiny" away, leading the guardian to look at him in surpise. "Why did you save him?" He asks. "You say that Driad has no purpose, breaking his mind so you could kill him while he was defenseless, but you overlooked one thing. He has something to live for, friends who will help him overcome any trials, even this emotional one that you have put him through!" Mario exclaims, his arms flung out beside him as he gets ready to fight.

"...You claim to be his friend, yet fail to realize that death is the only way to save him from the truth I have submitted him to. Humans such as you are unbelievable, thinking that friendship is enough to get you through all kinds of turmoil. Your incomprehensible behavior is exactly why your death is inevitable. Your life is a maze, every decision bringing you down a different path, and any reckless thinking will lead you down the wrong one. By choosing to defend one who needed no help, you have made it to the end of the maze. That is to say, a dead end...There are no other words to say on my end. Now..." The guardian lifts his arms up, and with a snap of the fingers a 3x3 grid of clouds appears around the heroes. "Draw your weapons and fight me!"

**The Lazy Floater: Aerial Sage Skyus**

"Alex, get Driad out of the way. We will handle this guy!" Luigi says, leaping into the air a second later and using his Thunderhand to zap the cloud where the guardian is currently at, only for him to sink into it and reappear in the red one the moment before the attack hits. The boy nods his head, and scoops the Crayzee Dayzee up in his arms before turning around and walking away to try and snap him out of his trance-like state. "Come on Driad, I know you can hear me, so say something. Anything!" _"Anything. Anything...Anything..."_ The voice of the boy quietly echoes inside the confines of Driad's subconscious, where the flower warrior is floating around with his eyes barely open and no noticeable expression on his face. "...So that's it huh? I was the former outside guardian of the Nature Castle..."

"But wait, can I truly believe that? That everything I knew was a lie, that I used to be a monster? Why should I continue onwards when I have no chance to figuring out the truth? I will always be conflicted, my mind unfocused and unable to concentrate on the fight...Darn it all. I need someone to help me...Someone, anyone..." _"Driad! I'm here for you! Please, don't loom on this forever, please wake up!" _"...Alex?" The boy's voice causes Driad to wake, his eyelids blinking twice after he regains consciousness. "Oh thank heavens, you're alive." Alex says with a sigh of relief. "...Alex, why are you trying to comfort me? Didn't you hear him, I am an outer guardian, I am the enemy..." The Crayzee Dayzee says in a heavy tone, using his arms to lift his body onto the cloud so he can then take few steps away from his friend as he stands back up.

"Don't tell me you actually believe him?" "How can I not? It all adds up...The memory problems, the fact that I know how the inner and outer guardians operate, and even my knowledge of where the Nature Castle was...You can say all you'd like Alex, but face it, I'm no better then the monsters we have slayed to get to this point." "Driad..." Alex disheartedly says, moving a few steps forward with his left arm held out ready to comfort his despairing friend. But then, without any prior warning, Driad extends his right arm out and turns it into his leaf sword, which causes the boy to flinch and pull his limbs back to the sides of his body. "Unless you want to die, then don't take another step Alex!" The flower boldly declares. "Have you lost your mind?" The boy exclaims in response, taking two steps forward in hopes of calming his friend down.

His movement is met with the Crayzee Dayzee leaping up and performing a 360 degree slash that nearly cuts the boy across the chest. After Driad lands on the cloud Alex stumbles back a bit and waves his arms out in surprise. "Driad! What do you think you are doing?" The flower's response is to turn his body around, take a step forward, and cut his blade across the air in a vertical arc that the boy leaps back to avoid. Then Driad lashes his left vine arm out, which Alex blocks by holding both his arms up in a cross formation, his body being pushed back to the edge of the cloud by the impact. "What am I doing? I'm doing my duty, human...I'm protecting this temple in the name of the Elemental Overlord! Hraaah!" Driad runs out with the dull edge of his blade held out in front of his face, and Alex holds his left foot up to press against it with his sole and use it as a sort of stand to kickflip himself into the air.

While he hovers in place, the flower warrior sends his left vine out to grab the boy around the gut and yank him in close. With him right where he wants him, Driad places the tip of his blade near Alex's neck. But with the boy's hands still free, he is able to hit Driad in the face with a right hook to knock him off his balance and in turn cause him to briefly let go. "I'm sorry Driad..." Alex quietly says as he tightens his left hand into the shape of a fist and punches him right in the forehead, knocking him back a couple of inches before following up with a few more punches from both hands. All the while the boy tries to hold back the tears caused by his friend's sudden change in behavior. Eventually his attacks knock Driad back to the center of the cloud, where the flower warriors regains his composure and blocks the next punch with the dull edge of his blade, followed up by him pulling his weapon off to the side and once again using his left vine to constrict the boy in place, this time making sure to get the arms so he doesn't escape again.

With his prey trapped, the Crayzee Dayzee raises his leaf sword up to the boy's neck and grits his teeth. "You won't get away this time...You will die here and now, human, and your ilk will never again taint this sacred temple." Though this is tearing him apart emotional on the inside, Alex keeps his cool and closes his eyelids, coming up with one final thing to say to help his friend go back to normal. "Do you really think this is the real you Driad? At least, do you think this is who you are now?" Though it isn't obvious, Driad's blade is quivering, his eyes looking hesitant to deal the final blow despite his previously violent behavior. "Look, I know that revelation was sudden for you, and that it has thrown your view of everything in your life up until this point into question. But what will you gain from killing me? Didn't you hear him, about how you lost your memories of your time as an outside guardian? By all means, that makes you a different person from who you once were, and what defines you now are the actions you make in the present, not the past. And besides, who is to say that the Lakitu is even telling the truth? You don't know, I don't know, only he knows...I can't do anything to stop you Driad, but I trust you to make the right decision. After all, I promised you that I would be there for you when you needed my help, and that promise will be kept, even in death..."

When Alex draws silent, Driad is left alone to think about everything that was just said to him, his mind in a turmoil because of both that and the truth about himself. As a headache starts to form from the pressure he has been put under, he puts his blade at even length with his eyes and tightens the grip on the boy, teardrops being forced from him eyes as he struggles to regain his senses. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes are struggling to beat Skyus, Luigi and Mario on their knees while Mallow is barely able to keep a hold on his staff. The guardian is down to his last cloud though, and even he is showing signs of exhaustion. "I'm amazed at your skills...Very few have actually gotten me to this point, so for that you have earned my respect. But the three of you seem to be out of options, so I'm afraid that this is the end."

The guardian holds his hands above his head, and summons the same type of Spiny that he used against Driad earlier. Only this time around its twice its normal size, just so he can be sure that it won't be stopped. "I wish I could give my regards to my master in the afterlife, but you'll have to do that for me, farewe-" Before he can finish his sentence, a green streak leaps up behind the heroes and heads towards the guardian, and in the span of five seconds the guardian is cut across the chest. The attack causes his cloud to dissipate along with his Spiny, blood slowly dripping out of his wound as gravity brings him towards the ground. "Wha-what?" He quietly declares his surprise as he turns his head around to see who dealt the blow. It was Driad, the person he had assumed was incapacitated. But despite the quickness of his appearance, the Lakitu can't help but smile as his shell makes contact with the ground and shatters, leaving him lying flat on his back with his stubby arms and legs out beside him.

The Crayzee Dayzee turns his body around and withdraws his leaf sword, running over to Skyus' body and kneeling down to pick him up. The guardian heavily coughs, his lungs and heart in pain due to all the blood he has lost. "Heh...Heh...Driad...Thank you, for killing me...*Hack gack*" "Huh?" Driad responds to the Lakitu's raspy comment with confusion. "You know...I wasn't lying when I...Told you about the clauses...But the truth of the matter is...I honestly knew nothing about you besides your name...And the fact that I thought you were dead..." "You...Thought I was dead?" "*Cough Cough*...Yeah...Though we were never allowed to know where...The other guardians were...We had a connection...That allowed us to know when the others perished, or *Cough*...were replaced...All this time, I've had to feel as all the original outer guardians were defeated...One by one...The only one besides me that has yet to lose his position...Is the one at the Ice temple...*Wheeze*"

"Please stop speaking, you are only straining yourself...Please, let me take you back, we can heal you and-" "I don't want any sympathy...Not after the things I've done...Remember the final way around the E.M.E.R.G.E. clause? The only reason...That I know about that, is because I experienced it firsthand...*Cough Cough*...I was defeated by...I don't even remember at this point...But I became a normal Lakitu...And ended up on the planet's surface...*Cough, Wheeze*...There, I ran into a young Toad who had lost his parents...And we became friends, as he spoke about how...He wanted to find the holy temple in the sky...Where he thought his parents had gone to...So one day, we went on an adventure...Leading us back to Nimbus Land...We formed a bond...became brothers...But those type of bonds are never meant to last...We eventually...Ended up in front of this temple...Confronted by the new guardian...And in a moment of weakness...My brother was blown off the clouds...And fell to his death...I was unable to do anything...I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the pace at which he plummeted...I cried...I was angry...And I wanted vengeance...*Cough, Hack*...So that's what I did...I rose back up, and killed the guardian...Then, the clause took effect...And I regained my memories, but at the same time kept the ones I had...Gained while I didn't have those powers...You'd think that it would deliver me happiness, to regain what had been lost, right? ...Perhaps I would've been better off dying...The last memory I could recall before I lost them all...Was of two Toads who struck me down...In the name of their son...That's right...The son was the same Toad who I called my brother...And horror struck deep into my soul as I realized that the guardian I so mercilessly slayed...Was his parents, morphed into a monster against their will when they were innocent of any...Crimes...*Gack, Wheeze*..."

Driad places his left vine on the chest of the Lakitu, his heartbeat slowing down significantly as his eyelids grow weary and begin to shut. "...I could never commit suicide...So the only thing I could hope to do to avenge those three lost souls...Was to have someone else kill me...That's why I was so keen on insulting you and your...Friends. All of you fit the conditions...To avoid the clause...So with my death...The cycle of the Sky is broken...And I will never have to sleep the nights away...Worrying about murdering anyone else by mistake ever...Again..." With the eyelids leaving only a sliver of the eyes left, tears of blood begin to drip from the Lakitu's ducts. "Driad...You are the lucky one...You have a chance to do something none of the other...Outer guardians will be able to do...And that's...Guide that friend of yours to his destiny...So he can become the next...Elemental Overlord...Don't despair about your past...If the fates decide that you should regain your memories...Then either embrace them or overcome them...Don't let those closest to you die...Protect them...Surpass my failed attempts to save my own brother...And liberate the other outer guardians who have likely strayed...Off the correct...Pa...th..." With his mind in tranquility, Skyus finally closes his eyes as the beating of his heart becomes still and his lifeless body is kept in Driad's trembling vines.

"Skyus...Thank you..." The Crayzee Dayzee tearfully whispers, standing up and walking to the other side of the entrance so he can rest the Lakitu's body against the wall. He then uses his left vine to wipe the tear drops from his cheeks, and then turns to look at his friends. At that moment, Mallow is using his HP Rain spell to heal everyone, with Alex walking up behind them with his arms folded behind his head and not a scratch visible on his body. The boy looks at the flower warrior, and gives him an approving nod, which earns him an honest smile from his flowery friend. When Alex then starts conversing with the group, Driad recalls one of the last things Skyus said to him. _"Don't let those closest to you die..."_ "Don't worry...I won't let that happen." With his right vine curled up in front of his chest, the Crayzee Dayzee walks over to the group, and Mario turns his head to look at him after brushing his left sleeve with his right hand.

"I see that you are feeling better now. Thank you for rescuing us again Driad..." The plumber says in a grateful tone, and the rest of the heroes nod in agreement. "Heeheehee...Don't mention it. I must say, you guys clean up quickly." The flower warrior notes. "That's my doing. One of my spells has the ability to heal the wounded with a downpour of nutrient-enriched raindrops." Mallow speaks up, raising his staff into the air and imitating the motions needed to cast the spell in question. He then puts the staff away since the battle has come to an end. Without their knowing, the cloud bridge is brought back into existence, which was the last action that Skyus chose to perform before his death. "So, shall we get a move on now?" Alex says, walking backwards and clapping his hands once to try and get the heroes hustling towards the entrance to the temple. After Mario and Luigi shake their heads and chuckle at the boy's actions, they too head on their way, with Mallow and Driad following not long afterwards. Before they set foot on the rocky ground, Driad takes one last look at Skyus' body, and sees that there is a smile adorned across his face. Though he is curious as to how this can be, the Crayzee Dayzee gives the body a smile of his own and heads on his way. A gust of wind brings three mushroom shaped clouds by the Lakitu, and upon their departure his body too has vanished...

_Next Chapter: Rainbows Across the Wayside_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Cloud Mario Over The Rainbows**

After the incident outside the Sky Temple left the heroes with a bit of insight into the lost pieces of Driad's past, the group ventured on into the temple itself now that the outer guardian Skyus had been killed in battle by the Crayzee Dayzee himself. Greeting them is a wide-open hallway with walls covered in vines and a massive gap that splits the room in two, with one misstep leading any unwary travelers plummeting to their deaths. But it seems as though this expanse will have to be crossed, for the marble arched doorway to the next room rests beyond it. As Mario looks on at Driad's cheery attitude, he finds himself disturbed by it, especially considering the comatose like state he had been in upon hearing the news about his true identity. When the plumber folds his arms in front of his chest and begins to tap his left foot against the ground, his brother walks up beside him and taps him on the shoulder to get his attention.

"What are you thinking about bro?" The man in green curiously asks. "About Driad. Specifically, his current behavior. He just seems too...Happy, for someone who just emerged from a traumatized state of being." "Well, we don't exactly know what happened when Alex took him away. We were too busy fighting the guardian to look over and check up on them. Maybe Alex gave Driad a comforting speech or something and that eased his mind?" "Doubt it. Its not like Alex can exactly emphasize with Driad's problems...Right?" Mario says, directing the question towards the boy as he just so happens to be passing by with his arms folded behind his head. He looks off to the side and innocently whistles for a moment before responding with "No, I didn't end up saying anything. Driad just sorted the issues out on his own, honest." Before his friend can say anymore, Alex increases the pace of his walk and goes over to the edge of the gap where Mallow and the Crayzee Dayzee are at, leaving Mario at a loss of words.

"..." Luigi itches the top of his cap and turns to look at his brother. "Well, I guess it really doesn't matter, does it now?" "Yeah, best not to spoil his mood. Still, kind of makes you wonder." Mario says as he moves his arms out to the sides of his body. "Despite Driad not being one, did Good Guardians ever exist? If so, then they must all have been exterminated by the outer guardians..." "That's a rather gruesome thought." The man in green responds as his face grimaces at what his brother mentioned. "Yeah, sorry about that Luigi." Mario apologizes with his head turned to look at his brother. He then looks on and moves forward to see what they have to deal with. "So, what is going on here?" Mallow turns around with staff in hand and holds it over his left shoulder. "Don't know. I've tried to summon a few clouds to help bridge the gap, but some outside force is blocking my magic. There doesn't seem to be any alternate route for us to take either."

"No magic huh? That does complicate things." "Yeah. You know, I COULD try flying to the other side and see if there is some type of switch or button beyond the door that will allow you to cross." Alex's offer is heard by Mario, who shakes his head back and forth to show his overall disagreement of the notion. "While I thank you for the idea, I doubt it would be the simple." With no other suggestions to give, the group lets out a collective sigh and each one of them continue to look around for something inconspicuous, Mario in particular folding his arms in front of his chest once more and tilting his head with one eyebrow raised. "Hmm..." With one eye raised up at the foggy ceiling, he notices a pale white vine sticking down from it.

Due to how well camouflaged it was, it took a moment for the plumber to focus his eyes on it in order to see it clearly. Once he does so though, he takes a few steps back with his arms held out beside his hips. When he feels he has reached the proper distance, Mario runs and leaps out towards the gap, surprising the rest of the heroes due to how sudden this action was. He raises his arms into the air and grips his palms around the vine, the plant keeping him suspended in place over the skies below his feet. Without wasting any time, Mario begins to swing back and forth, hoping his momentum combined with his weight will help pull the vine down and reveal some sort of secret. His efforts eventually start to work, and when he is able to he lands back on the ground behind him and starts to pull it towards him.

When Mario begins to feel resistance, Luigi steps in and helps out, the brothers combined effort finally causing the vine to be ripped from the ceiling, with two flower buds attached to the opposite end of it. The Mario Bros. lay the plant against the ground and watch as it vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving behind two flowers with clouds as the heads and two eyes on them. "Oh hey, Cloud Flowers!" Alex exclaims out of instant recognition of the items. "I know I can fly and all, but I can use one of them?" The boy says with his eyes gleaming with anticipation. Mario is uncertain about the idea, since he has the feeling that Alex won't be able to use the power-up. But the boy's puppy dog eyes and innocent whimper soon persuade him to ignore his concerns. "Alright, go ahead..." "Sweet! Thanks Mario!"

After clapping his hands together and rubbing them up and down, Alex walks towards one of the Cloud Flowers and swipes his left hand towards it. The hand phases through it, puzzling the boy and causing him to try again with his other hand. Nothing happens again, and this peeves him. So he lunges his whole body at the power-up, slamming face first into the tile floor as he fails to succeed once more. A few more attempts, including KICKING the flower repeatedly, leads to Mario stopping him by patting the boy on the back. "Umm...Guess you can't use our power-ups Alex. Don't know why, but it would probably be best for you to stop while you are ahead." Mario reluctantly says, his eyes having a hard time focusing on the boy due to how much he wanted him to succeed in fulfilling what was probably a life-long dream.

Instead of looming over it though, Alex snaps his fingers and backs away, only saying "I guess thems the breaks" in response to what the plumber said to him. "Wait wait wait wait wait wait..." Driad repeats ad infintum until Luigi snaps his fingers to get him to stop. "How the heck did someone produce a flower with a cloud on it? That just defies all standard laws of botany right there." "Magic." Mario bluntly responds. "But-" "I'm not kidding." The plumber then says, figuring out Driad's next sentence before more than one word is uttered. "I'm quite fond of the idea, honestly. A plant that represents that tranquility of the skies...Such a shame that it is one of your famous power-ups Mario, otherwise I could one day see a garden of these flowers spread throughout Nimbus Land." Mallow notes, closing his eyes and envisioning his dream while also letting out a gentle breath.

"So what does it do exactly?" Driad asks. The Mario Bros. stare at each other and walk into their respective Cloud Flowers. After a brief flash of light covers their bodies, the two plumbers are now seen wearing suits that fit the theme of the item they just grabbed. Their caps are puffy and white, with clouds wrapped around their wrists and kneecaps. Their overalls have become white as well, and three small clouds can be seen trailing behind the both of them. "The Cloud Flower allows us to make up to three solid clouds platforms at any point by..." At that very point in his explanation, Mario's eyelids close slightly as he remembers something very important about the power-up in question. "Luigi..." He quickly says to get his brother's attention. "Yeah?" The man in green swiftly replies. "How are we gonna make this work without the spin powers granted by the Lumas?"

"Err..." Luigi flinches, having forgotten about the detail that his brother just brought up. He nervously rubs the back of his head as he tries to come up with a solution, but finds that nothing he can think of will get around that one problem. "I'm drawing a blank here bro." "Actually, maybe these Cloud Flowers work differently here then they do out in the galaxies..." Mario says, his comment puzzling his brother immensely. "I'm not following..." He says while scratching the top of his cap, something that seems be a common occurrence with him as of late. "You know how Fire Flowers have a time limit out there while it takes us getting hit to lose them here? Or how Ice Flowers allowed us to make six-sided ice platforms on geysers and the water to skate on while here they allowed us to shoot balls of ice to freeze our foes?" "Oh I get it now. So you think that perhaps we won't need to spin to activate the Cloud Flower's power because the power-up was spawned on our planet?"

"Exactly!" Mario compliments, giving his brother a thumbs-up before walking to the edge of the platform. "Ok, I still need a little more clarification here about this Cloud Flower..." Driad says with one vine rubbing against the back of his head. "Right, right." Mario says, the tone of which he spoke in being used to apologize to his friend for cutting off the explanation halfway through. "The cloud platforms we make can be stood on so long as we retain the suit, but we can also land on other clouds as well. If we take damage or touch water, then we lose the suits. Our bodies also become lighter, thus allowing us to jump farther distances than before. I'd imagine that Mallow would be able to follow us along the clouds, but Alex will have to carry you across Driad."

"Umm...Mario, I still can't jump well, remember?" Mallow nervously admits, the detail apparently having slipped the plumber's mind for that moment. Mario turns his head around, his eyes widening for a second as he remembers the cloud Prince's flaw. "Oh...I'm sorry for forgetting that Mallow." "It's alright Mario. Not like it was something that stood out that well during our quest. Either way, I'm not that heavy, so Alex can probably carry me across too. He'll just have to make two trips across the gap. That is to say, if it is alright with you." "Sure thing Mallow." Alex quickly states in response to Mallow's polite request. "Alright then. See you all on the other side!" Luigi adds enthusiasm to the end of his sentence as he leaps out towards the gap. An admitedly foolish idea, considering the man in green doesn't even know how to work the flower now.

But his quick wits allow him to improvise a solution, and he lifts his legs behind himself so the soles of his feet touch the clouds floating close by. When he moves his legs back down, the cloud attached to his shoes follows him and expands to a bigger size once it is directly below him, giving him a solid platform to land on. But he does not stay for long, and leaps out to repeat the process two more times to get to the other side. For every new platform he creates though, the previous one vanishes, thus preventing Mario from following behind on those platforms and in turn saving clouds for later use. When both Mario Bros. have reached the other side, Alex has already carried both Driad and Mallow across. "It seems like that took longer than it needed to..." Alex notes, wiping the sweat from his forehead with one hand. A couple of drops land on Mario's suit, and in an instant it vanishes.

When the plumber and the boy both notice this, Mario turns to look at Alex with his right eyebrow raised and his expression obscured by his bushy mustache. All the boy can do though is chuckle at the ridiculousness of the Cloud Flower's weakness. Speaking of that, Driad has something to say about it. "Wait, why would a suit made of clouds vanish when it makes contact with water? Isn't a cloud made up of water vapor?" "I can answer that for you Driad." The cloud Prince swiftly responds, walking over to the Crayzee Dayzee and leaning forward so he can whisper the answer into his ear. A slew of complex scientific terms are spoken, but nothing that can be heard by the others. By the time everything is over though, Driad curls the left side of his lips up and nods his head to show that he understands everything about the Cloud Flower now.

"Huh...That makes perfect sense." With his job done, Mallow pulls back and walks away, Driad thanking him as he goes. "Well, now I'm out of clouds and Mario is out a suit. How are we going to continue onward?" "The same way you guys always progress through areas such as this." Alex says in the first part of his reply to Luigi's question. "By conveniently discovering another copy of the power-up you need in the next room." The boy says in a tone that belies the humor he finds in his moment of savviness. The Mario Bros. can't help but agree with what Alex had said, experience having taught them to expect a visible solution to any puzzle that comes their way. After remembering that they are running on a time limit, the group heads on through the arched doorway, finding themselves in a glass tube reinforced by a series of curved iron poles.

Outside the tube is a thick cloud of fog that blocks the view of the clear blue environment surrounding the temple. "Say, how much time do we have left before the temple will vanish?" Mallow asks. Alex lifts his arm up in front of his face and stares at his barren wrist. "Well according to my invisible watch, it is about fifteen minutes past I-have-no-idea." The boy then lowers his arm after making that sarcastic quip while the cloud Prince turns his head away and places two fingers against his forehead with his eyelids shut. "Sorry for asking..." He says. "In all fairness though Mallow, we probably haven't been in here that long." The boy retorts as the group nears the end of the tube. "Wonder how big this temple is anyways?" Driad asks.

"Probably the same size as the other two. So far, the only difficult part of the temples has been the battles with the inner guardians. The puzzles require a little thought, sure, but there haven't been many of them per temple." Mario answers. "So...One more puzzle room before the Elemental Stone room then, huh?" The Crayzee Dayzee says after a momentary pause. "Got it." He then follows up with a nod of the head. The next room is entered not long afterwards, the place being revealed to be a massive plexiglas lined vertical cylinder with a powerful wind current rising beneath the singular platform that the heroes are standing on. "Whoa..." Mallow says with his mouth agape as he stands on the edge of the platform and sees that there is a no solid ground below...Well, minus the planet's surface anyways.

"Anyone see the way out?" Alex asks, raising his head up high as he looks out for a single hole somewhere on the walls. Mario notices another Cloud Flower lying on the ground beside him, and walks over to collect the power-up and regain the suit. He then joins both the boy and his brother in looking for the way out. It doesn't take long though, for Mario finds a passageway near the roof of the room. "There it is." He says with a finger raised to alert his friends of what he found. "Now we will just have to get up there...Shouldn't be too hard." Mario notes in a calm tone of voice. "Alright, here's the plan. Alex, you carry Driad up to the passageway. I'll walk out and let myself fall down a bit before I create a platform. Then, Luigi can grab onto Mallow and fall down to land on the cloud as it rises into the air. Before the time runs out, I'll leap out and create another platform, with you following right behind me Luigi. Once I run out of clouds, we will alternate roles and hopefully make it to the top on your supply of clouds."

With Mario's plan explained, Alex quickly picks Driad up and flies to the top without any obstacles getting in his way. Mario initiates the first part of his plan, the cloud platform he created rising up with his brother stepping onto with Mallow wrapped underneath his arm not a moment afterwards. But something occurs that may foil the plumber's idea. Seven panels on both sides of the room flip around and fire a series of different colored beams at the heroes. The position of the panels causes the beams to combine into two twirling rainbow lasers. The heroes on the cloud notice this, and hasten their movements by leaping forward and creating another platform before the two beams collide in the center of the room and begin a struggle to overtake the other.

But that struggle doesn't last long, for from the turmoil of the two beams comes a pillar of prismatic light from the center of the clash that thrusts into the roof in the span of a second. The continuous existence of the lights is paid little attention by the heroes on the rising cloud, because more panels spin open and fire another set of beams at them. The process of beams firing, combining and rising is repeated as many times as necessary, while the heroes get ever closer to the passageway at the top. With their supply of clouds exhausted, Luigi is crossing his fingers as he prays in his mind that they will be able to make it in time. The platform soon is on level with the passageway, and the Mario Bros. leap forward with split-second timing before the prismatic light burns right through the cloud they were just on.

But gravity takes hold before their feet can land on solid ground, and the Mario Bros. slowly start to fall downward. Mario grabs onto the ledge with both of his hands, but his brother is not as lucky, and slams face first into the wall after tossing Mallow to safety in the passage. Once Mario has pulled himself up, Driad runs forward upon realizing that Luigi isn't with him and droops his vines down for the man in green to grab onto after he has freed himself from the wall. While he is being pulled up, he turns his head around to find that the prismatic beam is turning their way, along with the rest of the lights. "MAMA MIA!" He exclaims, his frantic climbing of Driad's vines causing the Crayzee Dayzee to lift his head up to see what Luigi has seen.

Thus, once the man in green is safe and sound, he and Driad run and lunge forward to knock the rest of the group onto the floor so they won't get disintegrated by the light. However, a metal panel pops up from the ledge to the ceiling to prevent the light from getting through. As the lights passes by the passageway, a mirror panel flips open below it and absorbs all of the light into itself. When the rainbow beams are called off, the metal panel is dropped towards the planet's surface (When it inevitably reaches the bottom it accidentally destroys about a tenth of Land's End, but that's a story for another day) and the mirror creates a rainbow bridge that extends to the platform the heroes had just come from.

After Luigi senses that things have settled down, he gets up and dusts his overalls off, only to realize that both he and his brother's Cloud Suits have vanished. Turns out, he ended up knocking the both of them underneath a part of the ceiling where water was slowly dripping from a crevice. His eyebrows slanted out of annoyance, he grumbles for a moment before saying "What a silly weakness..." under the whisper of his breath. He then helps Mario up while Driad deals with Alex and Mallow. "Well, that was a close one." Mallow says with a nervous giggle, this narrow experience leaving his heart beating rapidly. "Seems we got a way back now though..." Alex says, referring to the rainbow bridge that just spawned in front of him. "Well, I'm just glad we lost the Cloud Suits." Mario says.

"How come?" Luigi asks, puzzled by his brother's comment. "Since the next room is probably the stone room, the last thing we want to do is have floaty jumps against the guardian." "Fair point bro, fair point." The man in green says in agreement. With nothing else to mention, the heroes head towards the shredded tarp hovering in front of the next doorway and brush it aside to enter the room behind it. They have now entered a throne room. A dark-red carpet with rough golden edges lead the way to an emerald bordered throne at the top of a short stairway. There is a grey and white spherical stone on the seat of this throne. A few windows have been crafted into the right walls, letting some sunlight into the almost pitch dark room. On the left side of the room, there is a wall covered in moss obscuring some ancient scriptures, but that's not the focal point for the heroes at this moment. The boy bravely walks forward, stopping for a moment so he can say something to the others.

"Is everyone ready to fight?" Alex asks, glaring over his shoulder to look at everyone else, the group responding with a respective nod of their heads. "Ok, then I'm going to touch the stone." Alex walks up the steps and lightly taps the stone, and like the two stones before it this one rises up into the air and fills the room with its shining white light. Alex goes back to the others before the lights flash reaches its end. Once it has faded, a human is now sitting on the throne. From what can be seen, he is a man with a slight muscular build wearing a silver wolf mask on his face, a green and gold open vest on his body with a silver eagle painted on the left side of it, a green pair of puffy japanese samurai pants, two miniature wind chimes as ear rings, and golden bracelets on his elbows and knees. He slowly rises off of the throne and holds his left hand out. A gust of wind blows through the air and gathers into the shape of a weapon. A ruby rapier with a golden hilt appears from the air, and the figure grasps it in his hand. He looks at our heroes, who are ready to fight the man with all their might.

"Welcome, travelers" The figure says in a polite and calm tone of voice. "It has been some time since someone has come here to challenge me to battle." The man the plants the tip of his weapon into the ground. Driad at first is shocked that this guardian is capable of speech, but after what happened with Skyus he decides to discard his thoughts and bring up a more relevant point of conversation. "Hold up, you're a human?" Driad asks. The man pays little attention to what the Crayzee Dayzee has said Driad and instead looks upon him from the corner of his eye and from behind his mask a slight frown can be seen. "So if you're here, that means that both Grass and Water have been tamed again. Everything is once again going according to his will..." He says. Alex just looks on in confusion. "Tamed? What do you mean? And why didn't you responded to Driad's question?" He asks. The man releases a heavy sigh and sits back onto his throne. "I don't have much time, but I will say what I can." He responds in a tone that expresses his apparent boredom.

"You see, the first two guardians you defeated were unique, especially in comparison to those ahead of me. The first two were self-thinking androids. Of course, I would assume that it was easier to notice that in the Liquidizer Alpha then the Gaiden Plant. Not all inside guardians are absolute monsters, a few of us were chosen to utilize rational thought for a while. The only problem is, we are all...Bound by the laws set by the stones." The man ends his sentence with another sigh. "Bound by the laws?" Mallow asks. "I will get to that" The man responds with a hint of impatience. "You see, when you defeated the previous two guardians, their souls were tamed and sent back into the stones, where their damaged bodies are recreated for the time when they will be needed again. After all, one cannot truly kill the Inside Guardians without destroying the stones themselves. As decreed by the Elemental Overlord himself. Our lives are bound to the stones, our existences are guided by them. Without them, we cannot exist. We did not choose this life, this power, this curse...We were created for one specific purpose, to guard the stones so only the one that truly deserves to be called the next Elemental Overlord will be able to defeat us all and claim his power. That is the law, that is our destiny." The man gets up off the throne, and suddenly grips the side of his head with his right hand. "...Well then heroes...It seems as though the time for mincing words is at an end...The man says, his head throbbing in pain as if he is trying to fight a subliminal urge.

The heroes flinch in surprise, Alex blurting out a "What?" as the man seems to be unwillingly lifting his rapier into the air "I'm sorry that you have come this far, but this is our curse...Even those who are as calm as a mid-summer's day...Are forced to follow... and unleash the fury...of the storm...GAAAAAHH!" Two beams of burst out of the eye sockets of the wolf mask, as the man is forced on his knees. Our heroes stand motionless for a few moment, curious as to what has happened to the man once the light show has ended. Then he rises back up, and the heroes can now see a pair of beastly yellow eyes peering through the mask. The man holds his rapier out in front of him and places his left hand on the backhand of his right. "The storm has risen, the blade has been drawn...You defeated the previous two even though they were all brawn." The man says in a gruff and furious sounding voice. "Atop the skies our battle shall begin, in the face of a hurricane there will be no way that you can win!"

A wild gust of wind blows through the throne room, blowing the moss on the left wall off. It reveals a half-wolf creature riding what appears to be a tornado. It is holding onto the same colored rapier that the man before them is wielding. The guardian then moves his right hand away from his rapier and raises the blade above his head. He then slashes at the heavy breeze, cutting it in half so both parts of the wind then start whirling around and around on the left and right sides of the room, violently kicking up dust and dirt in a maelstrom of debris. The man then stabs his weapon towards the heroes and snarls. "Play time is over boys! I will show you the meaning of an unstoppable storm!" He yells out with much vigor...

_Next Time: The Unbreaking Storm_


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note:**

Alright, I finally did it. I found a way to get my back-ups for Part 1 on Mediafire and can now write the story again. But unfortunately, only on the weekdays, since that's the only time I can access a word document program. But still, better then nothing, right? Now, on with the story!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 15: United Stormfront<strong>

**The Fallen from Grace Tempest: Storm Emperor**

Without hesitation, the man quickly snaps his right fingers, and some wind is pulled from both walls and begins to spin around in front of him, eventually twirling into the shape of a mini-tornado. The man leaps on top of the Tornado and upon getting his balance he tosses his rapier out towards Driad. The flower warrior jumps out of the way of the weapon, and it impales itself into the wall behind him. Confident that he is now safe, he is taken off-guard when a few knicks are felt on his left arm. He takes notice of this and finds that a few cuts have appeared on there. "When was I-" As he thinks back to the guardian's attack, he turns his head to the left and blinks for a moment, noticing the wind gathering around the impaled rapier, which vanishes a couple seconds later. The weapon is pulled out and brought back to its owner with another snap of the fingers.

"Interesting..." The man says, a spark of interest glimmering in his eyes. He pulls his arm up and thrusts his weapon into the tornado that he is riding and swiftly backflips off of it. He then places his hands into the pockets of his pants and gently lifts his left foot up to kick the tornado, which sends it towards the heroes. Mario grabs onto Mallow and jumps to the left, while Driad and Luigi move to the right to avoid the tornado, but Alex notices the moment of vulnerability that the man has left himself with and after a quick somersault along the ground he jumps towards him with his left fist held back. Anticipating his actions ahead of time by analyzing the change in wind pressure from the boy's movements, the Emperor snaps his fingers to guide his tornado in another direction.

The phenomenon slams into the right wall of wind, bouncing off of it and heading to the other wall, where it rebounds of it as well and heads towards Alex. Just inches away from striking the guardian, the boy is forcibly sucked in by the now stationary tornado and repeatedly cut for ten seconds by the side of the rapier's blade. When the time has passed, the guardian calls the tornado over to him, pulls his weapon out, and then kicks through the tornado to send Alex away. The boy flies through the air and lands behind where the heroes are his mouth barely able to draw a breath due to the damage he has sustained. He is still alive, thankfully, but the fact that he has been knocked unconscious after one attack has sent a fair enough warning to the group about how the guardian is not fooling around.

"I'm not giving you any leeway. Approach me now heroes!" The guardian boasts with his rapier planted in the ground and his left fingers waved out to guide the tornado in the group's direction. Mario bravely steps forward and thrusts both of his palms into the tornado, holding it back with his feet nailed to the floor. He then digs his fingers through the wind and with all of his might he splits the phenomenon in two, and without any way to keep itself together it fades away. "Impressive…" The guardian notes with his left hand rubbing against the chin of his mask.

The plumber runs at the Emperor with his fists dragging in the air behind him. As the wolf-masked man picks up his rapier, he holds the blunt edge out horizontally to block the first of Mario's punches. He then moves it in different directions in an effort to block the flurry of blows that the plumber is sending his way. When Mario lets up, the guardian can detect the gleam in the man's left eye, and once he backflips he sees the man in green rocketing towards him with his "Green Missile" attack. In retaliation, the guardian jams his rapier into the ground and causes a twister to be summoned that spins Luigi around the outside of it until he is on level with where Mario is at, at which point he pulls his weapon out and causes the man in green to be sent flying head-first into his brother's gut, knocking the both of them back near where Driad and Mallow are at.

Mallow picks the injured Luigi up, while the Crayzee Dayzee offers Mario his left vine to help him up. The only damage the plumber sustained was a minor concussion when his head landed on the ground, but even in his daze he notices the knicks on his friend's vine. "How did that happen?" He asks. "Don't know" Driad responds after realizing what Mario is referring to. "His sword completely missed me. I think he might have created some miniature wind blades around his sword, but-" Before he can finish, Mario turns his head to the left and notices a crescent shape blade of wind coming their way. He grabs his friend around the stomach and leaps over the attack, which tears through the carpet on the ground before slicing through the wall behind them. The guardian currently has his right hand raised above his head. "Need I remind you of my previous warning?" The man then snaps his fingers to summon another tornado, which automatically targets the unaware Mallow and Luigi.

"Shoot!" Driad exclaims, extending his vines out towards the ceiling and attempting to latch onto it under the assumption that the attack is aimed at him and Mario, but finds that the cuts made by the guardian have made it difficult for him to latch on to the cracks, and his arm begins to slowly split apart. Eventually he is unable to keep a grip on the ceiling, and the arm detaches itself from the body of its owner. Both he and Mario fall towards the ground, but end up landing right inside of the tornado. The man smirks upon seeing this. "So your wounds have caught up with you! Now suffer!" Changing his course of action, the guardian snaps his fingers to stop the tornado just inches away from Mallow and Luigi and raises his rapier above his head, slashing it out in front of him to send yet another wind blade towards the heroes. The Crayzee Dayzee closes his eyes to accept his fate, but before that can happen Mallow makes a small jump to the side of the tornado and pulls his staff out, jamming the bottom tip into the phenomenon with great urgency. His staff then glows, and the wind from the tornado is sucked into it. Once Mario and Driad have landed on the ground they duck so the wind blade passes harmlessly above them. In response to his attack being foiled so unexpectedly, the guardian's confident demeanor is broken, his face flinching in surprise. In his lapse of attention, he almost fails to notice Luigi jumping straight at him with his right hand spread out and covered in electricity.

But with his composure soon regained the guardian responds to Luigi's attack by holding his rapier up as his line of defense. Though successful at keeping the man in green away from his face, the guardian knows he can't risk keeping this up for long and swiftly pulls his weapon back, letting his foe land on the ground so he has a better chance at attacking. Luigi puts two fingers together and filters all of his electricity into both of those tips, jabbing them forward while the man's guard is lowered. The wolf-masked guardian raises his left foot up and blocks the attack with the sole of his wooden sandal, which in turn prevents him from being electrocuted. He then applies as much force as he physically can into his kick to push the man in green back, nearly breaking Luigi's two fingers in the process. Refusing to back down, Luigi fires a lightning shot from his tips, which the guardian avoids by back-flipping onto the seat of his throne. Impressed by his opponent's indomitable behavior, the guardian takes a momentary pause to compliment the man in green. "So, you show no fear?" The man says in a curious tone of voice. Luigi lowers his hands and stares at the man without any hostile intent being shown. "When you have faced ghosts, witches, infinite void of space, and even death itself, what else is there to really fear?" He responds, receiving a chuckle from the guardian in return. "Well said, man in green." The man says, his tone filled with praise. "If destiny has permitted that those be your last words, then you will have died earning my respect" The man brandishes his weapon and jumps off the throne, landing with such force that a cloud of dust rises around him. He then raises his head after kneeling in recoil and proceeds to dash at Luigi. The man in green creates sparks of electricity in both hands and readies himself to fight back while keeping his feet planted in the ground.

While his brother is holding the man off, Mario takes advantage of this to check up on Driad, who is currently looking at the place where his left arm once was, his face barely looking unnerved by the loss of such a crucial limb. "You ok there Driad?" Mario asks out of concern. "Oh, you mean this?" Driad asks nonchalantly. The Crayzee Dayzee puts his right arm on his left shoulder, and makes a painful sounding grunting noise. A new arm bursts through the shoulder, with some dew dripping along it. "…Dew?" Mallow says in confusion, having not been clued in on how Driad's body works. Driad just sighs and grunts some more, causing the dew to be absorbed into his body. "My blood is made of dew and I sweat honey." Driad quickly responds. "Never mind that though, shouldn't we help Luigi out?"

Back with the man in green, he has managed to hold off the guardian in close-combat just fine, but both warriors are slowly becoming fatigued due to how close in strength the two of them are. "Hmmm..." Mario murmurs to himself with his arms folded in front of his chest. Driad notices this and both he and the Cloud Prince turn to look at him. "You got an idea?" They both ask at the same time, an action that warrants a surprised glare towards each other. The plumber nods and snaps his fingers in front of his gut with a smile on his face. "Oh yeah!" He responds enthusiastically. After huddling together, Mario details his plan to the other two. Once they have lifted their heads up, Mallow has something to say. "So we need to get the guardian to summon another one of his tornadoes?" "Uh-huh." The plumber responds with a nod. "That sounds harder than it needs to be." The cloud Prince notes while itching the top of his head with his right fingers. "Why not just let me summon a tornado?" He then says while flipping his staff horizontally into the air twice.

"You can do that?" Mario asks in surprise. "Sure I can, especially seeing as I absorbed the wind from his previous tornado into my staff. It won't be difficult to do either." To demonstrate his point, Mallow holds his staff at arm's length and uses his magic to summon a tornado in the center of the group. "See? Easy." The cloud Prince says in a humble tone. "Nicely done Mallow. Alright then, let us do this." As the heroes put the pieces together for their master plan, Luigi backhands another attack by the guardian and jumps back to catch his breath, grasping his left shoulder as the man in front of him stands motionless in wait for him to come at him once more.

"For someone who claimed that they weren't going to give us any leeway, you sure are giving me plenty of chances to breathe here…" The man in green states. "I am only doing so because I too have to give myself a couple moments to relax. But if you so wish for me to return to my previous self…" The guardian raises his rapier above his head, the handle grasped in both hands as wind is pulled from the walls and sent up into his nostrils. Once his oxygen supply has been rejuvenated, he snarls and swings his weapon to the left, ready to go another round. "Oh boy…" Luigi says in a sarcastic tone as a sweat drop trickles down the left side of his face. "Luigi, heads up!"

With his brother's warning, the man in green turns around and sees a flaming tornado heading his way. With one backflip he manages to get over it so it can move on towards the guardian, whose pupils enlarge in surprise upon noticing it. "Nice try…" He says, tossing his rapier off into the wall of wind and thrusting both of his palms out to use his powers to keep the flaming tornado at bay. "While I commend you for your intuitiveness, a tornado with fire in it STILL has wind as one of its base elements. And what you create, I can easily turn against you!" But despite his claim, the guardian struggles to push the tornado back, even with all of his might being used to try and do so. Perplexed by why his effort are failing, he also realizes that the tornado is inching ever closer, his strength leaving him with each passing second. In a last ditch attempt at victory, the guardian nudges his head to the left, commanding his rapier to fly through the wind wall so it can spin around and point itself at Mario.

But it is too late. By the time his weapon flies out of the wall, the tornado breaks through and consumes his body in its grasp. The heat from it slowly burns the man and the flammable bits of clothing that he is wearing. When his body has been weakened enough by the fire, the tornado vanishes, leaving him with only his armor pads, his mask, and shredded up, burnt remains of his pants. He falls onto the floor back first, and his sword stops only a centimeter away from the cheek of the unaware Mario, vanishing into the wind not a moment after his master has tasted defeat. The storm walls disappear, allowing the rays of the sun to shine brightly into the room once more. The man's furious eyes return to their original state, and he turns his head to take a glimpse at the sun with a smile adorned across his face. "And the cycle continues..." The man whispers. The group walks over to him, and the guardian musters all of his strength to turn and look them in the eyes.

"Brave heroes...Before I fade away, I must ask...Why was I unable to turn that tornado of yours against you?" The man weakly asks. Driad kneels down beside him to give him an answer. "You assumed that there was only one other element to deal with besides the flames. But there was actually another, the leaves I had tossed in for Mario to ignite with his Firebrand. So in actuality, the tornado was composed of 1/3 Wind, with Fire and Grass taking up the other 2/3. If it was half and half, you might've been able to turn it against us, but it was because of my contribution that we won."

The man looks on in surprise as the flower warrior details the cause of his defeat, and instead of being mad, he just lets out a weak but joyous laugh. "Hahaha...So you are learning how to the merge the elements together in a harmonious fashion…To think that this day would come…After two-millennium spent in torment…" The guardian then silences himself and breaths in and out, coughing heavily due to the damage inflicted on him. "It seems as though I will be going back into the stone once again...Just like many times before...Yet oddly enough, I feel hope this time around...Is it because of the sun's cheerful light, which has never once pierced this temple when I've been fought before? Or is it because that boy...Reminds me of him? …Before I depart, I have something to say to you, about the man I serve..."

"This mask on my face…It is not just here for show…It was created by the Elemental Overlord to make sure that I would go all-out whenever I fought…But do not take that as a sign that he is a bad man…The decision was all my own. As a warrior who wanted to serve someone of strong will, I was always concerned about harming someone, and that prevented me from using my all in a fight…The Overlord heard my wishes, and pulled part of the sky down to forge this mask. He asked only one thing from me…That if I put this mask on and defied all that I feared in order to serve him, that I would never take it off until the day when I believe I had found a worthy successor to his name…And now I have done so…The boy that follows you, he reminds me so much of my master, not just in appearance, but the vibes coming from him…They are pure…He just, has a certain air to him that leads me to believe that he is destined for great things…But I ask you, proud warriors of the Mushroom Kingdom, to keep striving for great heights yourself…Especially you Driad…Now then, I must deliver on my promise to my master…"

The man slowly moves his left hand towards his mask and starts to take it off. Before the heroes can see what his true face looks like though, his body starts to fade away from the top of his head downward. All that could be seen is a small scruffy grey beard, and a glowing smile. "Wait, what was your name? You never told us that!" Driad yells out. The man's body fades away in a flurry of white sparkles, leaving behind the Sky Stone on the ground where he once laid, but his voice echoes from within it. "My name? Heh, it's been a while since someone asked me that...If you must know, my name is Fujin..." The last few words are spoken quietly, as Mario picks up the stone and stuffs it into his overalls. In his eyes, it is easy to see that he feels a bit sad about defeating the guardian this time around.

"So...What should we do now?" Mallow asks. "We should take Alex back to the Nimbus Resting House, first off. …Actually, we really need to make haste here, before the temple vanishes with us inside of it." Driad says, remembering what the cloud Prince had mentioned early on. "Okie-dokie" Luigi responds. The heroes then turn around and walk over to Alex's unconscious body, and the Crayzee Dayzee picks him up and hangs him over his shoulder so he can easily carry him back. As they then leave the room, a quiet gust of wind blows through the throne room, and the howl of a wolf can be heard within it.

_Next Time: Interference, the First Phase_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Interference**

Away from all the action our heroes have gone through, in the middle of a steaming hot desert, we find Cackletta and Joe Dark walking through the sandy plains, with Fawful hovering behind them, using his signature helmet to keep himself afloat. Joe Dark has a bitter expression across his face,which Cackletta has taken notice of. "What's the matter child?" Cackletta says in the gentlest tone that she can muster in that black heart of hers. Joe Dark glares at her from the corner of his eyes. "We are getting nowhere, witch." Joe Dark growls in an angered tone. "You promised me the power necessary to cleave Whiter's head off his shoulders! And yet here we are, walking through a damn desert, with that useless floating green henchman of yours following us like a shitty little gnat!" He then says, but upon reaching the second sentence, his voice becomes more gruff and demonic sounding, causing the witch to merely smirk in response.

"Ok brat, you want to stop wasting time? The boy you so desperately want to kill will be coming here in a day or two, since the fifth temple is around this area. You want victory that badly? Then show me that you have the determination needed to succeed in your goals, and stay here waiting in ambush for him and his little pals." Cackletta turns around and smiles, while Joe Dark is grins from ear to ear. "Well then, if you are so confident in my skills now, then I will gladly wait here for them to show. But are you certain that you don't need me, witch?" Joe Dark says with a hint of defiance in his voice. Cackletta just waves her left hand out, signaling Joe Dark to leave her sights. "Run along dear, I'll be fine." Cackletta nonchalantly states, a grin still on her face as continues to wave her hand. "Farewell then, witch." Joe Dark responds without a single hint of remorse in his voice.

The boy then rises into the air and flies off into the distance, leaving a thin stream of dark energy as he goes. Fawful floats over to Cackletta. "Mistress, can the youngling of mental temperament possibly hope to defeat the red and green plumbers whose appearances fill me with anger?" He asks. "Of course not Fawful. Well, not yet anyways. For the time being though, he will prove to be a good distraction for those fools." The witch folds her arms into her body, making her cape cover her body completely. "Fawful, you remember the plan, correct?" Cackletta asks. "In the words of a person who has been described as a man among men, YESZ!" Fawful cheerfully exclaims. "Good." Cackletta says, dragging out the pronunciation of the 'o' to emphasize her glee. "When you are done, return to the designated location, and I will meet you there after I have taken care of my own plans." The witch opens a portal of darkness in front of her and walks through it. "I have chortles!" Fawful says, flying off not a moment after his mistress has departed.

Meanwhile, inside of the spherical room that had been visited before, the mysterious figure with the mechanical arms is watching as the heroes leave the Sky Temple and return to Nimbus Land. "So, the sky has been calmed now..." They say. The door behind him opens, and a person walks in. "Lieutenant, glad you could come." The figure says in a cheerful tone of voice. "What did you call me for this time Commander?" The second person asks. "The group that has just defeated the inner guardian of the Sky Temple." The Commander responds. "So…Based on the files you asked me to research, that would mean that the Lightning Palace is next, correct?" The Lieutenant asks. "Exactly. That's why I called you here today." The Commander says. "You are my most trusted man, the closest friend I have had in my thirty years of running this base. However, for the six years that YOU have served me, you have performed tasks that any normal member of your species would've been killed by. What I am about to assign you is a Gold S Level Mission, Lieutenant." The Commander says, earning a surprised flinch from his comrade.

"Gold S? Sir, you haven't assigned one of those since the war with Bo-" "I understand that Lieutenant, but this is a VERY important mission. If you fail to complete this mission, then it could mean the end of our very planet. Knowing this, will you, Lieutenant Gemini, set out to the Lightning Palace to meet with the Mario Bros. and help them out until they themselves manage to reincarnate the Elemental Overlord?" The Commander asks. Gemini is silent for a few seconds, but simply gives a salute to his Commander. "M.S.I. Rule 24 Subsection 7: 'Should a soldier be unable to comply to the request of their Commander, then they are to be relieved of duty and their memories of the base shall be erased' and M.S.I. Rule 10 Subsection 12: 'If a soldier on the battlefield is saved by a superior officer, then they owe that officer their life until that debt is either repaid or the officer dies' should tell you my answer, Commander."

"Excellent answer, Lieutenant." The Commander responds with a chuckle. "I may be many things, but an ungrateful fool is not one of them. You saved my life, and I will never disobey any order you give me because of that." Gemini says. "Very well then. I wish you the best of luck on your mission then." The Commander responds. "Yes sir!" The Lieutenant enthusiastically says, ending his salute and turning around to exit through the door. "Alright then, time to see what piece you will move next, Cackletta..." The Commander says, flipping his chair around to continue examining the monitors.

In the deep reaches of Bowser's Castle, we find the hulking Koopa King in his nearly pitch black library, reading out of a giant book with a golden spiked spine and a red cloth cover. His loyal Magikoopa and prominent caretaker Kamek is floating around the room on his broomstick. "Sir, are you certain that you will be able to find the article in question? This part of the archives hasn't been touched since the days of the first Koopa Dynasty" Kamek nervously asks. Bowser just lets out a quiet gwafafa. "If I wasn't certain about it, then I wouldn't be in here looking, would I now?" The Koopa King roars, making the frail Magikoopa panic. Bowser then continues to skim through the book, until he comes across something in the back half of the pages. Bowser lets out a quiet laugh, but even a quiet laugh from him is loud enough for his companion to hear. "Sir?" Kamek asks. The Koopa King slams the book shut and turns around, a cloud of dust rising behind him. "Get ready to depart Kamek, we are going to an island in the middle of the Mushroom Sea!" Bowser exclaims, before proceeding to dash off. Kamek, puzzled by the actions of his King, simply shakes his head back and forth and follows the hulking Koopa out of the library

Back at Nimbus Land, everyone has retired to the Rest House for the night, to get some sleep and heal up after their battle with Fujin, the Storm Emperor. At the moment, Alex is tossing and turning in his bed, not because any pain, but because of a dream he is having dream. In his mind he sees himself standing in a forest, with nothing but red and yellow glowing eyes looking at him through the dark veil of the forest. Various voices are speaking to him at the same time as well. "You weak little child..." "Every last bit of empathy was given to you!" "You don't deserve to be his reincarnation.." "I serve a higher order..." "I'm sorry for lying to you Mario..." "Hand over the stones, or Mario dies!" "Forgive me Driad, but this is how things must be…" And many more sentences and words are being shouted at him, a few of them even being said at the exact same time.

But despite all these vicious sounds, one positive voice calls to the boy in the distance. "Alex...Please don't give up..." This familiar voice breaks the darkness of the forest, giving way to a flood of blinding light. Alex wakes up at this point though, thrusting his body upward as some cold sweat drips down his face. The boy looks around to see everyone else sleeping on beds made out of clouds, with sheets made of palm tree leaves covering them up. The boy has a grip on one of those tree leaves, but he doesn't notice that at the moment. "Was that a dream, or a nightmare...I don't know...I need some fresh air..." Alex leaps up off of the bed, and without even noticing that THE REST HOUSE HAS NO ROOF ANYWAYS he walks out the front door and heads to the edge of the cloud city, lifting his head up to stare at the starry skies.

Being above the layers of thick clouds, the sky above is perfectly clear, and the moon being out helps make the brightness of the stars more prominent. Alex sits down on the edge of the clouds before finally realizing that he is holding onto a palm tree leaf. "Heh, silly me...Didn't even notice that this was here, even though it was right in my grasp..." In embarrassment, the boy lets go of the leaf, and it floats down towards the ground below with the wind eventually catching it and sending it off into the distance. Alex then starts whistling a tune to himself, one with a cheerful feel to it. Suddenly, Driad walks up behind him and taps him on the shoulder with one of his vines. This causes Alex to jump up in shock, and nearly lose his balance on the cloud. When the boy has gotten his balance back with a bit of assistance from Driad, he presses his hand against his pounding chest and looks his friend in the eyes.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Driad...But I do wish to thank you for the help just now." Alex says, nervously expressing his gratitude at the same time. "No problem" Driad states nonchalantly. "By the way, what were you whistling just now?" The Crayzee Dayzee asks with curious look on his face. "Well, I was whistling 'Presto from the Divertimento in D Major'" The boy says. The flower just stares at his friend with a dumbfounded look on his face. Alex realizes that Driad wouldn't actually know about the tune in question. "Ummm, it's a song done by a guy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart." The Crayzee Dayzee still looks puzzled, albeit a bit less than before. "You wouldn't know about him because he lived on Earth, where I come from." "Oh, well that makes sense" Driad says, before closing his lips slightly and attempting to whistle the tune himself. Alex just lets out a sigh. "I really don't think he got it..." He then thinks, scratching the left side of his face while listening to his friend whistle. "You are a bit off-key there Driad. Let me help you get the pitch right, ok?"

Later on, after Alex has taught his friend how to whistle the song correctly, the two of them are sitting on the edge of the cloud whistling it together. Then Driad suddenly stops whistling and turns to look at Alex. "Say, why do you like to whistle this particular song?" The boy then too stops whistling and looks up at the stars. "My mom used to whistle this to me whenever I was a baby, to calm me down when I was crying, at such a young age, it was easy for stuff like that to stick, so I have continued to keep it close to my heart for all these years. When I'm feeling down, I whistle the tune to myself." Driad tilts his head, puzzled about what his friend just said. "How come your parents don't whistle it to you anymore?" Alex goes completely silent because of this comment, then stands up and walks back to the Rest House. "I'm getting tired...Good night Driad" Alex says, gently avoiding the question at the cost of raising Driad's suspicions. But luckily for him, the Crayzee Dayzee is also feeling tired and comes to the conclusion that Alex probably just didn't feel like staying up any longer to answer his question. As such, he gets up and depart for the Rest House so he can go back to sleep.

The next day, when the crack of dawn causes the rays of the sun to shine down on Nimbus Land, we see that the heroes are about to enter the Nimbus Bus so they can return to Toad Town. The King and Queen of Nimbus Land are there to bid farewell to our heroes, in particular, their son Mallow. "I'm sorry that you couldn't stay around longer! We would've loved to hear more about your adventures Mario!" The Queen exclaims. "Make sure you come back safely son, we both wish you the best of luck!" The King also yells out. "Don't worry mom and dad, the next you hear of us, it will be because the Overlord will have been revived, and I will return to you complete unharmed!" Mallow cheerfully responds. The cloud Prince then follows the rest of the heroes inside of the bus, and the door shuts. The King and Queen wave their right arms above their heads as the bus slowly lifts off the ground and flies off of Nimbus Land, departing to the ground below.

After about an hour of flying through the air, a detour being made to drop some passengers off at Land's End, the heroes arrive back at Toad Town. The vehicle lands near E. Gadd's lab in the exact same spot that it had land near to pick them up the day before. The group gets out of the bus, and Mario gives the driver a 100 coin tip for his services. To his surprise though, the man refuses it. "I don't need any money. You saved our land and brought Prince Mallow back to us, that good deed alone is worth more than all the money in our fair land. Still, I'm touched by your generosity, Mario." So as the bus driver waves the group adieu, he closes the doors and heads on his merry way. Mallow is currently looking at E. Gadd's lab, his face expressing a bit of disappointment at how plain the place looks on the outside. Alex walks up beside him and notices his expression. "It's pretty underwhelming, isn't it?" He notes. "I've heard that E. Gadd is one of, if not THE brightest mind on the planet...You'd think that he would make his lab, I don't know, stand out a bit more. He could've added a giant beaker, a wrench, maybe even some whipped cream that looks like his hair on to, but as it stands this just looks a little too generic for my tastes." Mallow responds.

"Well just wait until you get a glance at the inside. Come on, I'll show you." Alex then says, placing his left hand against Mallow's back and guiding him through the entrance with the rest of the group following not too far behind. At the bottom of the stairs, they enter and are surprised to find that the Professor is working on...Absolutely nothing! Instead, he is just sitting on a mechanical lawn chair, once again playing Solitaire on his computer. "Oh ho ho ho, you think are being clever by hiding the 4 of spades under there? Well if I just move this over here..." E. Gadd moves his mouse to drag a stack of cards over to the left side of the screen. "Professor! We are back!" Driad exclaims. His voice combined with the Professor's old age and his full concentration on the Solitaire game causes him to move the mouse a little too far to the left, the card stack getting placed in a spot that he didn't want to put it, which causes the computer to promptly tell him that "There are no more viable moves. You've lost the game."

E. Gadd, unnerved but not entirely upset at this outcome, simply raises one eyebrow to the fact that he lost, and presses a button on his mechanical chair. The chair then grows four legs and both sides. These limbs turn the lawn chair around, and walk the Professor over to where our heroes are, before retracting the legs so he can leap off without hurting himself. "Welcome back heroes. I would assume that your trip bore good results?" E. Gadd asks. Mario takes the Sky Stone out of his overalls and shows it to him, giving the Professor enough time to examine it before the plumber puts it away. "Excellent job. You are making tremendous progress boys." E. Gadd says in a congratulatory tone. "Now then, may I have the iGadd so I can upload the location of the next temple?" Mario nods his head and gives the elderly man the device in question, where afterwards he turns around and puts the device in the desired slot.

"Say, I have a good question to ask while we are waiting." Alex interjects. "How come you don't just upload all of the temple locations? Surely you've had the time to translate the parts of the tablet by now." Though the Professor is busy focusing on the computer screen as the bar moves on by, he does hear the boy's question. "The tablet is complicated. The text alone is written in a variety of different Plit languages, many of which have been lost in the waves of time, so I have had to spend hours on end digging through archive after archive to figure out how to translate it all. Not only that, but I still have to be focusing on the creation of my inventions." The heroes quickly turn to look at the lawn chair, and Luigi just closes his eyelids halfway and says, "It's a mobile lawn chair."

"Oh ho ho ho ho, it is not just any lawn chair, Luigi. Its metallic frame has been built using the hardened shells of Moon Clefts combined with the metallic coating of a Silver Chomp! Its wooden arms have been hand crafted using the hardest wood from the inner confines of the Tall Trunk Galaxy! Its legs have hidden springs inside of them, made using the compressed, melted liquid of about eighty Spring Mushrooms! This allows it to jump 2 miles into the air, and enables it to cross the wide expanse of Desert Land in a single bound! It also comes equipped with a coffee maker, which uses the beans imported from Yoshi's Island and Chucklehuck Woods to make a MEAN Bean Frappuchino. And all of this would not be possible, were it not for me forging the rubber bands using the very heat from Corona Mountain's lava!"

Upon finishing his long-winded, excited sounding explanation, the heroes stand with their mouths all agape. The Professor lowers his raised arms to the side and nudges the front of his glasses with his right hand. "Or maybe I'm just fooling around with all of you and it is merely a lawn chair with a few mechanical parts added to it." His comment causes the group to simultaneously fall flat on their faces. A few seconds after this revelation has come to pass, the iGadd has finished receiving the data, and E. Gadd pulls the device out of the computer, walking over to Mario so he can take a look at it once he picks himself up off the ground. Before he does so though, he has something to say since Alex brought the point up "I got something to ask as well. Why do we need to carry the iGadd around with us? Can't you just tell us where these temples are located? I've been around the land enough times, so I'm pretty certain I would know where to go. Besides, it saves us the risk of the enemy blindsiding us and taking the device." He asks. "I see your point, and I do agree with it. But you will need the device for this temple. Take a look and see just why that is." E. Gadd quickly answers. Mario lowers his head and takes a look at the iGadd, only to find that the location of the next temple is...Right in the middle of the Mushroom Sea. To be specific, it's directly in the middle of the sea, between Toad Town and Lavalava Island. The plumber's eyes bulge out of his sockets for a moment. "Mama mia!" He exclaims.

"Oh ho ho ho, see what I mean? Had I just said 'Middle of the Mushroom Sea' that wouldn't have helped you at all." The Professor says with a bit of wit in his tone. "Now, I will leave you to your adventure while me and my lawn chair go play some more Solitaire." With that said, E. Gadd jumps onto his lawn chair and heads back over to the computer, leaving our heroes to their business. They exit the lab, and decide to plan their next move. "I wish to go see Peach." Mario swiftly says. "Huh?" Alex states in confusion. "How come?" Mario just shrugs in response. "I feel that she should be told about our quest so far, in case she might be worried about us."

"Well..." Alex says. "Just wait for use at the docks Alex. We will be back later, ok?" Mario says. "Alright then. Just make sure not to get ambushed…" Alex says in concern, nodding his head afterwards to show that he trusts that the plumber will return safely. "I'll come with you too Alex, you know, just to provide support in case WE end up getting attacked." Driad says. "Good idea Driad.." Alex responds. "We are off then." Mario says. He, Luigi and Mallow then head off towards Peach's Castle, while Alex and Driad move towards the docks. Meanwhile, inside Peach's Castle, the blonde and pink dress wearing princess is talking to a figure made out of blue energy, with a few light sparkles covering them. This person seems to have a crown on their head, along with a bang that covers the right side of their face. "Are you certain that these events are transpiring, Peach?" The figure says in a calm yet motherly tone.

Peach nods her head. "I'm afraid so, if you are in this quadrant at the moment, then could you please stick around above the planet, just in case something goes wrong?" Peach asks. The figure nods its head. "I will. Even after all these years, Plit is still my place of birth, and I would hate to see something bad happen to it. Besides, I owe you and Mario a favor that I would be glad to repay at any time. I'll be signing off now, but you know how to contact me again." The figure then raises a star shaped wand over her head and vanishes. Mario's group enters the room not a moment later. Peach turns around when she hears the doors open, and is surprised when she sees Mallow and Luigi with the red-garbed plumber. "Oh! Is that you?" Peach happily declares, before sprinting across the throne room to greet the two.

"Well Princess, it has been awhile since we last saw each other but-" Luigi stops talking when Peach runs past him and goes right in front of Mallow, causing the man in green to sulk. "At least Daisy recognizes my existence..." He mumbles to himself, kicking one foot into the air as his quiet grumbling is only heard by his brother. "It's been a while since we last saw each other Mallow." Peach says. "How have you been faring?" Mallow blushes, his maturity over the past few years having affected him in such a way that the Princess appears prettier to him than she did when he was younger. "I'm doing well Princess. And you?" Mallow says, graciously bowing his head in respect to her royal lineage. "Oh you know, just dealing with the normal Bowser kidnaps me routine, with a few sport tournaments, parties and go kart tournies here and there to break the pace. Come to think about it, I've never seen you at any of those events. I'm sure word would've spread out to Nimbus Land, seeing as the news announcements have always succeeded in reaching the inhabitants of DK Isles." Peach then asks, her left fingers raised to her mouth. "Well, being a Prince has made it harder for me to do fun things such as go karting and tennis. I do, however, have time to record your sport tourneys though, and I've got a DVD for each and every one of them."

"Ahem" Mario says, lifting his right fist to his mouth and coughing. Peach raises her head in embarrassment and turns to look at Mario, apologizing for nearly ignoring him. "I haven't forgotten you Mario..." Peach then says. Luigi sulks even more. "Why does no one pay any attention to Luigi?" Luigi bemoans in a quiet tone. "So, tell me about your adventure Mario." The Princess says. "Well-" The plumber then starts to tell his audience of one his wondrous tale. Back at the docks though, Alex and Driad are standing patiently in wait for the others to come back. "So why did you really come with me Driad?" Alex asks, his arm folded into his chest as he stares up at the nearby crane. "You never answered my question last night." Driad says. "Besides, I'm here for protection just in case Joe Dark comes back for another round." The boy scoffs before his friend has finished "I don't have to answer if I don't feel like it. Plus, I was really feeling exhausted last night. Remember, I got beaten pretty badly by that guardian's tornado attack, and I can't regenerate my limbs like you do. I'm simply an average human who can fly. I don't have any special abilities besides that to keep me safe."

"…Oh, alright then. I'm not going to push the question if you don't want to answer it." Driad says, shrugging his shoulders before lifting his head up to look at the sun. The boy then turns to Driad. "By the way, are you going to be able to fold out today? You haven't restored your solar energy levels since we departed from Nimbus Land." He points out. "It's alright, it is bright enough out at his moment, so I'm simply going to recharge while we wait." Driad responds, point up towards the sky, where the sun is floating overhead. Alex looks up and notices this as well after he uses his left hand to act as protection against the celestial body's harmful rays. "Well that's strange, wonder why I didn't notice that before." He ponders. "Probably because the guy writing this was a little vague about the environmental details in this scene." Driad reponds. The boy just looks down at Driad as if he had lost his mind, but then just shrugs it off and continues to wait for the others to come.

Twenty minutes later, the rest of the group finally show up at the docks. Alex somewhat peeved that it took them this long, and is about to call them out on this, when he sees that Mario has brought back two slices of strawberry cake, both of them on plates with a fork accompanying it. "Where did you get that cake Mario?" "Peach made it for us. Didn't want you to think that we had forgotten about you, so we asked her if it would be ok to bring two slices back, and she agreed without hesitation." Mario says as he gives the Crayzee Dayzee one slice and Alex the other one. Both of them use the forks to dig into the cake and lift a part of it into their mouths. After chewing the cake slowly and diligently, Alex's face lights up with a sensation of joy that he hasn't felt in a very long time. Driad's face changes to match Alex's expression as well. Then they let out a long, overjoyed sigh and continue to dig into the cake. A couple minutes later, the cake is completely gone.

"That was delicious! I can't believe Peach actually does make cakes that are this mouthwatering, spine-tickling good!" Alex exclaims with his eyes filled with glee. "Well what were you assuming beforehand? That Peach never made be a cake before?" Mario asks. "Yes!" The boy excitedly retort, causing the plumber to just glare at Alex in annoyance. "So, how are we going to get to this island anyways?" Alex asks, changing the subject to get Mario off of his back. "That's….Actually a really good question." Mallow says, raising his hand as if to off a solution only to lower it when none comes to mind. "I can't swim. If I do, then my body will just absorb the water like a sponge." "I got it! We can use whales!" Driad says, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Actually, now that you mention it..." Mario rubs the bottom of his chin and turns around walking to the edge of the dock and clapping his hands. The waters start to ripple as a mass of light blue blubber with a hole on the top rises out of the waters. As it emerges more and more, the owner is revealed to be a whale of enormous girth. Driad's eyes bulge out of his sockets, his jaw dropped and his vines hainge extended out so much that they are bundled up in a pile beside him. "I WAS JUST KIDDING MARIO!" He then exclaims as he pulls himself together.

"Mario, it's been a while." The whale says in an echoing yet monotone sounding voice. "Where do you need to go today?" He then asks. "To a little island in the middle of the Mushroom Sea. Halfway between here and the Lavalava Island." Mario says. "Oh? The one with the temple on it? Yes, I have passed by that place a few times. Hop on, I will take you and your friends there without any difficulty." The whale backs out of the docks area and turns itself around so it can back in for the heroes to easily board him, lifting its tail up as a pathway for them to walk across. Go on the whale and sit firmly on its back. "Here we go!" The whale exclaims. "Next stop, the…Errr, where are we going again?" Alex asks, the destination in question having not been revealed while they were in the Professor's lab. Mario pulls the device out of his pocket and takes a look at the map. "…According to this map, we are heading to the Lightning Palace." With the name of the next location revealed the heroes, the whale begins to swim in the direction of it, leaving the docks of Toad Town behind in its wake…

_Next Time: Gemini, The hero of unknown?_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Gemini of the Blood Thunder**

Having been sailing the seas on the back of the whale for the last hour, the heroes are slowly but surely moving closer to their destination, the fourth temple, the Lightning Palace. Mallow is on lookout duty at the front of the creature, Mario is playing cards with his brother, Driad is lying down on his back and soaking up the sun rays while Alex is standing beside him with his arms crossed, looking out at the sea with his eyelids slightly shut because of the gentle sea breeze coming his way. "It's weird when you think about it. We have technically already went into the sea before to go to the Aqua Temple just a few days ago, and now we are riding a whale across the ocean. Seeing it all from above now, it all looks so stunning." He says, his head tilted downward, where he sees groups of little Cheep Cheeps swimming through the water. This brings a smile to his face, but then in the span of a second the Cheep Cheeps are swallowed whole by a speeding Big Bertha. Alex's expression changes from happiness to shock, and he simply lifts his head and continues to look out towards the sea. "Never mind..." He says in disappointment.

Soon afterwards, a temple comes into view. It's hard to see the detail on it though due to a mass of storm clouds hovering around the upper half of the temple. As they get closer though, they can see the mass of land that they will need to get off on. It also looks like there is a tall stairway at the base of the temple, and upon further inspection of the temple it appears to be a lot bigger than the other temples that they have been to so far. At the top of the stairway there are two metallic pillars. One is melting from the top downward, and the other one has been bent out of place. A loud, booming roar can be heard coming from the top of the stairs, followed by a burst of red light and some flames spreading throughout the air. The heroes take note of this and quickly get off the whale. "I'll be here to take you back at any time." The creature exclaims as the group starts to run up the stairs to see what is going on, but Mallow briefly turns around and looks at the whale. "Thanks for the ride!" He says in thanks, before turning back around and continuing to climb the stairs.

At the very top of the staircase, the heroes see that Bowser and Kamek have arrived before them, but Bowser is kneeling on the ground, and Kamek has been knocked unconscious. "Bowser?" Mario exclaims in surprise. The Koopa King hears that familiar voice calling to him and turns his head around, looking at his longtime foe with fury in his eyes. "Oh great, it's YOU!" Bowser says, his teeth gritted into a scowl. "It's bad enough that I was dealing with Thunderoids over here, but now YOU show up...And you brought your green clone and the crybaby cloud...GREAT!" As he stomps his left foot on the ground repeatedly, he suddenly does something that he has never done before. He comes up with a brilliant plan, stopping his stomp and closing his eyelids with a grin on his face. "Of course, now that you are here, I can just make my escape while YOU guys deal with this guardian! Bwahahahaha! Come Kamek, it's time for us to retreat and go pluck some fruit from our garden!" The Koopa King walks over to a white open pod with a green rim on the top and a creepy clown face plastered on the front, with a green propeller being attached at the bottom. As he jumps into his Copter, Kamek wakes up and casts a spell on himself using a golden wand with a ruby tip, teleporting himself into the Copter. "So long suckers! Bwahahahaha!" Bowser exclaims as he takes off into the skies.

Our heroes look puzzled. "O...k...?" Driad with his held pulled back slightly and a gleam of confusion being seen in his eyes. "Who was that?" He asks. "That was Bowser, the King of the Koopas." Mario responds. "So that's a Bowser…Ugly fellow, isn't he?" Driad says. At that moment the plumber thinks back to some of his previous bouts with Bowser, like when he stole the Star Rod and the time he took the Grand Stars to become bigger, and then there was the one time where he….Drawing a blank on anymore instances where his nemesis was particularly threatening, Mario stops thinking and holding his left arm out while saying to Driad "Hmm...I can only remember two instances, but you still shouldn't judge Bowser based on appearances. He can be a threat when he gets serious." "Yeah...Still, got to wonder why he was here, eh?" Alex interjects. "He probably had one of his spies out and about, and they managed to find out about our quest which in turn meant they reported it to Bowser" Luigi suggests. "Probably" The boy then says, shrugging his shoulders as the group really has no way of knowing the truth of the matter.

Back with Bowser, he is getting healed by one of Kamek's spells. "Well, that was some pretty good acting on my part if I do say so myself. Now the first phase of my plan is complete!" Bowser says with an excited guffaw at the end of his sentence. "You still haven't told me what the plan is sire. I've followed you through thick and thin, but this is the first time you have neglected to tell me anything about your plan." Kamek nervously says. "Bwahahaha!" Bowser laughs in response. "Don't worry Kamek, you will soon see the brilliance in my grand design! While Mario and friends are busy dealing with that temple, we will...KIDNAP PEACH!" As the Koopa King starts laughing like a maniac, Kamek merely takes his right hand and applies it directly to his face. "Oh dear...Here we go again..." The magikoopa says, sighing in the face of his lord's stubborn desire to get the Princess for himself. "Very well then, sire…" Kamek says with a hint of hesitation. "…Indeed! ONWARD TO TOAD TOWN!" Bowser yells out, steering his Clown Copter towards the direction of the peaceful town of Toads.

_**Meanwhile, back at the Lightning Palace…**_

"Hey! How dare that giant Koopa run off and leave me with these five weak looking twits! I was having fun!" A loud voice breaks the group's silence. The heroes suddenly remember just where they are, and come to the obvious conclusion that Bowser was fighting the Outside Guardian before he ran off. Standing in front of them at that very moment is a giant yellow Koopa with its shell completely gone. Its arms are ridiculously buff, with spiked pads protecting his shoulders. He wears two blue belts around his waist and chest, with two black spiked balls attached to the upper belt on his waist. He also happens to be taller than everyone in the group. "So, which one of you wimps want to fight me first? Or do you all wish to rush me at the same time? I haven't fought anyone in about twenty some years, so even if I'm going to win, so it would be nice to hear whatever foolish plan of attack you got before I knock you all to the floor." The Koopa turns his head to look at the storm clouds and whistles to himself, like he is waiting for the heroes to do something. The group just stares blankly at the arrogant guardian, and Alex's face is twitching from annoyance.

"Do we seriously have to fight this guy?" He asks. "Unfortunately, we do." Mario says. "We can't get into the temple otherwise..." "You know, seeing as his element is electricity, maybe I should take the lead here, since I'm a good counter for whatever moves he might have in his arsenal." Driad interjects. "Yeah, but look at his build. It's clear as day that he would turn any of us into putty if he managed to punch us." Mallow says. "Hello?" The giant Koopa exclaims in utter disbelief that the heroes are taking so long to fight him. "You got ten seconds, wimps!" With the time limit now declared, the boy turns to the Crayzee Dayzee with a sweat drop dripping down his forehead. "Ok Driad, we will distract him as much as we can until you can get a chance to-" Alex is swiftly cut off when the guardian appears beside him and delivers a painful looking uppercut right into Alex's jaw, sending him hurtling into the air. Then he snaps his fingers, summoning a lightning bolt to come from the storm clouds above, which smites Alex and sends him down towards the ground, but the Koopa jumps up and grabs Alex by the collar of his shirt and pile drives him onto the ground behind him. Despite all those attacks, Alex is alive, though his body is severely injured.

"That's it? You are this close to death after only three attacks? Pitiful, die!" Blitzkreig yells out, raising his left hand and prepping some electricity in the tips so he can burn through the boy's chest with one swift jab. Mario runs forward and swiftly kicks the Koopa in the elbow to stop his attack, but at the cost of grabbing the guardian's attention. The Koopa turns his head and swings his arm to the left to try and sever the plumber's head from his shoulders, but the attack is avoided with a simple spin-flip through the air to where he was originally standing at. "Geez, you are serious about this, aren't you? You better hope that I didn't just take out your best fighter, because otherwise you have no chance of beating the mighty Blitzkrieg!

**The Brash and Foolish Striker: Blitzkrieg**

Mario instantaneously reacts to Alex going down and nods at Luigi as if he has come up with a plan of attack. The man in green grasps what his brother's plan is without them exchanging a single word. Mario pulls out his trusty wooden hammer and jumps at Blitzkrieg. The overly buff Koopa notices Mario's attempt at an attack and quickly shifts his body around to dodge every blow without any effort. For added effect of the ease of his dodges, the guardian has placed his arms behind his back. Blitzkrieg then tries to grab Mario's face, but the plumber reacts to this effort by taking his hammer and spinning around in the air with his arms held outward. The hammer hits the Koopa's hand five times, causing him to retract it back towards him. Mario still has plenty of momentum going from the spin though, and releases his grip on the hammer. Blitzkrieg is about ready to jump out of the way of the weapon as it approaches his face, but Luigi jumps directly over him. The man in green's appearance is a big enough distraction that it causes the buff Koopa to not pay attention to the hammer, and it smashes right into the bottom of his jaw while Luigi lands safely behind him without so much as a scratch.

"One lucky shot, that's the only chance you've had, and you wasted it trying to trick me!" Blitzkreig says as he starts to fall backwards. But to the heroes' surprise, the guardian turns his arms around and slams his hands against the ground to stop his fall. He then applies pressure to his feet and legs to back-flip over Luigi and land near the entrance of the temple. He then reaches for his belts and rips the spiked balls off of it and grips them in his hands. "This will be over before it began!" He says in an overtly cocky tone. The heroes choose to charge the guardian at the same time in fear of what his next attack might be. This is just what he wanted them to do though, and as a smirk crosses his face the Koopa tosses the spiked balls into the air, folding his arms behind his back and snapping his fingers to cause sparks to emerge from the stormy skies above. Lightning then forms and bursts from the darkened skies above, the energy from them being absorbed into the spiked balls.

"Even you guys were boring...Oh well, you'll make nice trophies until the next sucker comes along to fight me...VOLTIC ENCLOSURE!" Blitzkrieg brings his hands back in front of him and claps them together. The heroes suddenly halt their movement as the sound of thunder crackles through the air. But to their surprise the sound of thunder is not coming from the clouds above, but from the supercharged balls that are still floating around in the air above the guardian's head. Blitzkrieg shows the group his toothy grin, and the electricity that had been stored in the balls is discharged from the tips of the spikes in the form of multiple electric wires. The wires connect to each other to form a net, which then plummets towards the heroes. Due to its speed and size, the group is unable to get out of the way of the net in time, and it covers them completely. Luckily though, the heroes are able to, at the very least, lay down onto the ground, where the net is unable to touch and fry them to a crisp. The guardian folds his arms in front of his chest and raises his head in laughter.

"Hahahahaha! How pathetic, you couldn't do anything to stop my attack, so you just chose to stand there like a bunch of morons and let yourselves get trapped like the rats you are! And your bodies are resting on the ground like worms, and if you even try to lift yourselves up you'll touch the net and burn in agony thanks to the source of energy coming from the very thunderclouds themselves!" Blitzkrieg then moves his arms to the side of his body and turns around, getting ready to walk back into the temple. Suddenly, a footstep can be heard in the distance. This causes the buff Koopa to turn his head to look behind him. "Another victim? This day has been very interesting..." Blitzkrieg turns himself around and walks forward a bit, hoping to catch a glimpse of the latest fool who would DARE try and topple him.

The sounds get louder and louder, as this mysterious person climbs step after step, slowly but surely approaching the top of the stairs. Blitzkrieg is overcome with excitement, for he has not fought anyone in a long time, and now this newest person will be his 6th victim today. Sweat drips down his forehead, his eyes watering in glee when all of a sudden; a shadow appears in the midst of the fog that has fallen around the temple. "Who are you?" The guardian exclaims. The shadow turns to look at the electric net that had trapped our heroes. It then turns to look at Alex, who is still unconscious. When the person has finish, they turn their head slowly to look at Blitzkrieg, but from the positioning of the shadow, one can see that he is not looking directly at his face. "You are the outside guardian, correct?" The shadow inquires, speaking in a gruff yet young sounding tone.

"Yes, I am." Blitzkrieg says, taking arrogance over the fact that he is being recognized by his opponent already. "Good. I'm glad you introduced yourself as such, otherwise I may have tried to kill some other arrogant, and brawn obsessed punk." The shadow steps forward. His comment has caused the guardian to get a LITTLE upset. "Punk? What powers that be gave you the right to call ME a punk?" He exclaims, his face turning a slight shade of orange as he tightly clenches his fists beside himself. The shadow steps out of the fog, revealing the owner of it to be a regular sized Koopa with a yellow shell, a mechanical right arm, and a scar across his left, purple eye while the coloring of the other one is that of yellow. He can also be seen wearing an undamaged red scarf on his left arm. "Why, only the High Commander of the M.S.I. himself, that's who gave me the right to call you a punk. Of course, even without his permission, I would still have called you a punk, seeing as that is exactly what you are, punk." The Koopa is completely calm, even in the presence of an enemy as massive as Blitzkrieg, and every time he says the word "punk" his tone is sharp and direct as a way to incite anger in the guardian. The heroes are trying to see just what's going on, but find that they unable to turn around thanks to their current condition.

"Who are you?" Blitzkrieg exclaims. The Koopa just reaches into his shell and pulls out a golden staff. Golden metallic goop extends from the tip of the staff, forming the shape of three devilish looking prongs. When the form of the prongs solidifies, the Koopa plants the completed trident into the ground, and kneels at it without even paying any attention to Blitzkrieg himself. "Call me Gemini. Gemini of the Blood Thunder. Well, I guess that's not really the appropriate title for me this time." Gemini then takes his trident out of the ground, stands up, and spins it around beside himself for two seconds before brandishing it out at the guardian, whose face is looking absolutely pissed off by this point. "Until you leave this world, you can call me The Executioner." He says, keeping his cool even with the overbearing presence of guardian looming in front of him. "Gemini of the Blood Thunder? You cocky little gnat, when I'm through with you, you will only be a Bloody Mess!" Blitzkrieg then forms his right hand into the shape of a fist and tries to punch Gemini, but the Koopa quietly chuckles and proceeds to duck under the monster's punch in a split-second.

Just as quickly as he dodged the punch, Gemini tosses his trident up into the air right past the stunned expression on Blitzkrieg's face. "You won't pull any tricks on me!" The guardian then takes his other hand and also turns it into a fist. He attempts to slam it down onto Gemini's vulnerable body, but the Koopa quickly tucks into his shell and rams himself forward, slamming the guardian's ankles with enough force to upset his balance and make him topple forward, landing face first onto the ground and cause it to tremble from his weight. Gemini emerges from his shell, his trident flipping itself around mid-air and proceeding to plummet towards the defenseless guardian. While Blitzkrieg tries to push himself up off the ground, the weapon ends up piercing directly into the fallen Koopa's back, right near his left shoulder to be exact. "GRAAGGGHH!" The fallen Koopa screams in the midst of his pain. "You used to be a Koopa yourself, and you don't even remember that we can tuck into our shells? Who is really the pathetic one here? Mario and the others, or YOU?" Gemini is not even looking at the guardian as he pierces his resolve with that question, for he is ashamed that Blitzkrieg could ever have been part of the same race as him. "Let me put you out of your misery..." The Koopa then turns around to finish the guardian off, but is surprised to see that he is slowly but painfully lifting himself off the ground, and once he is on his feet, he reaches for his back and grabs the trident by the staff and pulls it right out. As blood begins to drip from the punctured wounds, Blitzkrieg turns around and tosses Gemini's weapon off to the side.

"Blood? I…I shouldn't be able to bleed!" Blitzkrieg declares with his face now as red as an apple. Gemini merely scoffs at the remark. "Oh, so I bet you thought that having magical powers meant that you would be invincible? Wake up son, this is a battlefield, not a damn playground where you can be a bully without concern…" Blitzkrieg is beyond pissed off at this point, and takes his hand to his belts and rips both of them off, revealing plates of metal that were hidden underneath them. "Take a good look you worm! I kept those belts on me to prevent myself from becoming a living lightning rod, but now that they are off, I can absorb the lightning above and become even stronger! Now prepare to die, Gemini of the Blood Thunder!" Blitzkreig lets out a massive roar as lightning sparks in the clouds above. Bolts of electricity rain from the skies and smite Blitzkreig repeatedly. As he slowly begins to increase in both height and mass, the muscles on his body become more pronounced with the veins bulging like mad. The little bits of armor that he was wearing break off of his body, and his eyes become dried up and blood shot. When he has finally finished growing, he is about 10 times as tall as Gemini, whereas before he was only 2 times as tall.

"START TREMBLING, YOU PUNY FOOL, FOR YOU WILL SOON BE ONE WITH THE GROUND OF WHICH YOU WALK!" Blitzkrieg says in an over-the-top loud and menacing tone. Gemini lets out a sigh and walks over to the giant Koopa, calmly placing one hand on his leg. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Blitzkrieg exclaims. "You really are pathetic. You rush forward without any clue about your opponent's powers, and when you get hurt even once, you freak out and instantly assume that your foe is a major threat and decide to increase your size to combat them. I bet you can't even recognize the one glaring flaw in your ability…" The Koopa then puts his other hand on the leg. "What are you doing?" The hulking guardian yells in confusion. "So, I'm guessing that you continue to absorb electricity while those belts are off, correct?" Gemini theorizes. "Now tell me..." Electricity flows around his arms and goes to the palms of his hands. "How does your heart feel after your size increases to this level?" Gemini looks up at the guardian's face and smirks, as his own face starts to turn pale and his blood shot eyes return to their original form. His size increases a bit more, and he takes one hand to his chest and feels his heart thumping loudly, as it starts to beat at a slower pace with each passing second. After enough electricity has been fed to him that he is now 12 times Gemini's size, his heart can no longer supply enough blood to his body, and in turn his bodily functions shut down completely along with his veins rupturing all around. Blitzkrieg's eyes become as white as clouds as they reel back into his head, and his arms become limp. He falls over, his body unable to support itself once his brain dies. As he is about to land on the ground, his body begins to fade away into nothingness. Before the Koopa can be subjected to seen the guardian's bloody corpse, the body completely vanishes.

Gemini closes his fingers into his palm to shut off the electricity that was on his right hand, and extends his left arm out to the side of him. He uses the electricity in that hand to create a magnetic force that pulls his trident back over to him. Once he has a firm grip on the weapon, the electric net that had kept the other heroes trapped vanishes without a trace. They get on their feet and turn around to see that the mysterious Gemini is the only one standing in the aftermath of the battle. The Koopa dispels the prongs on his trident and stuffs the staff back into his shell. He then walks over to our heroes and extends his right hand out to them as a greeting. Mario looks at him with a puzzled expression, which Gemini picks up on instantly. "I guess I'm being a little too rash with the introductions here, Mario." Gemini says, retracting his hand behind his back and nodding his head as the plumber raises an eyebrow over his mannerisms. "Who are you?" Driad is the first to ask, expressing curiosity over the identity of his savior. "I've been called many things. Lieutenant, hero, friend, monster, even 'Hope'. But if you want a proper term to stick to, just refer to me as…an ally." Gemini answers immediately, with a grin showing his delight over meeting the group…

_Next Time: The Tangled Web of Thunder_


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: Gemini of the Blood Thunder II, Kaput Order Over Proud Inner Strength**

The Koopa known as Gemini stands before the heroes, offering his hand as show of peace while at the same time declaring himself to be their ally. The group just stands before him completely befuddled, for it is easy to be suspicious of the man's timely appearance, especially considering that no one else should've known that they were going to be here besides E. Gadd. Gemini notices their weariness towards him, and withdraws his hand. "Fine, you don't have to believe me when I say I am an ally. I suppose it was foolish of me to expect a quick response, considering the timing of my appearance." Gemini correctly guesses.

Mario turns his head to look at Luigi, but he just shakes his head back and forth, signifying that he doesn't trust the Koopa in the slightest. The plumber then looks at Gemini again. "Did E. Gadd tell you to come here?" Mario asks. "E. Gadd? No, try a little higher up." Thinking of only one person, or rather one group that is higher up then E. Gadd in importance, Mario responds to the Koopa with the following "The Star Spirits?" Gemini rubs the backside of his head, gritting his teeth and sighing to himself as he stars down at the ground. "Geez, I thought you would've heard of us. Especially considering how we have been serving this planet since before you showed up…" The Koopa reaches into his shell and pulls out a small black, disc shaped container. By clicking a button on the side of the container, the top half flips up and projects a hologram showing and I.D. badge containing Gemini's face, his stats, and his occupation. There are also three letters above Gemini's picture that says "M.S.I."

"I'm from an organization hidden within the deep recesses of Plit, the M.S.I., or as it is more commonly known as, the Mushroom Secret/Spy Industry, I have been assigned the rank of Lieutenant by my superior officer and leader of the base, Commander Alpha. My name is Gemini, and my assigned mission is to help the heroes that hail from both the Mushroom Kingdom and Nimbus Land accomplish the task of reincarnating the Elemental Overlord." Gemini then presses the button on the disc once more, and the hologram vanishes. He then flips the device around and puts it back into his shell, folding his arms in front of his chest not a moment after he has finished. "Any questions?" He then asks.

There is one snippet of information on the hologram that piques Mario's interest, the age part to be exact. It appears as though Gemini is a fully-grown Koopa, though his age was shown to be six on the hologram. Mario rubs his chin and turns his head to the side. "Gemini was it?" He says to get the Koopa's attention. Gemini looks at the plumber, his face showing signs of worry after assuming that Mario has already caught the age thing. "Yes Mario?" He asks. "Why does the hologram have your age at six years old? You are clearly an adult Koopa, not a child." Mario responds. Gemini's lips curl into a small scowl. "Of course, he just had to ask about that..." He thinks to himself. The plumber notices this scowl for a moment, but Gemini fixes his expression before Mario can become even more suspicious of his actions. "Yeah, I've been in the M.S.I. ever since I was a little kid. I have a condition that has made me age quicker than other members of my species, which is why I appear to look older than my age suggests." Gemini says, his tone showing a hint of sincerity to what he is saying, even though in actuality he is lying.

"Hmmm...I'm not buying it..." Mario notes. Driad then walks in front of the plumber and extends his vines out to shake Gemini's hand. "Nice to meet you Gemini, my name is Driad." He says, closing his eyes and giving the Koopa the widest grin he can muster. Gemini is both surprised and a little disturbed by the fact that the Crayzee Dayzee isn't acting cautious around him at all. Even so, he extends his left arm out and grasps Driad's vines, both of them shaking each other's hands with the Koopa also getting a smile on his face. Mario removes his hand from his chin and sighs. "I guess I really shouldn't worry about the whole age thing…. You did save our lives, so the odds of you being evil are slim to none." Thus, the heroes walk over the Koopa and take turns shaking his hand, by the time they are done they have fully accepted him into their group.

"Thank you for the welcome….Now then, about the boy? Alex Whiter, I believe his name was…" Gemini says, pointing one finger out to the boy's unconscious body. Mario then swiftly turns around as his eyes bulge out of their sockets and he smacks himself on the forehead upon realizing that he had completely forgotten about the boy. "He's ummm...Knocked out." Mario says, stating the obvious. "Well it's a good thing for you guys that I came prepared." Gemini says, walking over to Alex's body and reaching into his shell to pull out a Mushroom, which is then placed on top of Alex's gut. The Mushroom sparkles and turns into dust, which floats down onto the boy's body and causes it to glow. Alex then thrusts his eyelids, and upon noticing the Koopa above him he instantly rises up and jumps backwards. "Who are you?" Alex exclaims in surprise, holding his fists out just in case he has to fight this mysterious Koopa.

Gemini lifts his head up to look at Alex and raises his left hand to try and calm him down. "It's alright, Alex, I'm one of the good guys." He says. Alex tips his head up and raises an eyebrow up in puzzlement, wondering just how this Koopa knows his name. "How did you-" Gemini walks over to Alex and places his left hand on his shoulder before he can say anymore "Let me bring you up to speed, alright?" He then says. Mario nods his head, offering to help with the up-to-date recollection. Once the two of them tell Alex about everything that has happened since he was knocked out, the boy is just left confused by these events, something of which isn't helped by the Koopa letting it slip that he knows that Driad is an outside guardian when that detail had no reason to be brought up.

"How exactly did you find out about Driad?" Alex asks. Despite how unexpected the question was, Gemini knew that this moment would be coming and prepared a quick answer to said question. "My commander is very thorough; he has cameras set up around the world at any place that he has seen fit to put them." "Wait, what?" Mallow interjects, waving his arms back and forth as he walks over to the Koopa and gently rests his right behind his head. "Hahaha…That was a good joke Gemini. But if that was the case, then how come neither me nor my parents have ever caught any of those supposed cameras in our palace?" "We don't just use normal sized cameras. He have built miniature, everlasting mechanical flies to act as surveyors of places that have no really landmarks to observe, such as the desert expanses and the seas. In fact, one has been following you guys around since you left the Nature Castle. I can detect its electro-frequency at this very moment…"

Gemini then walks over to Mario and reaches out behind him, lightly grabbing a small dot out of the air and placing it in his shell. He then walks back over to where he was before, looking directly at the entrance to the temple while Mallow's eyes widen in shock for a moment and then he laughs nervously to himself. "Heheh…I don't suppose you would find it offensive if I felt that my privacy was being invaded by those cameras, right?" "Not at all. If anyone would be offended, it would be my Commander, assuming he can hear us right now. Don't worry about it Mallow, we at the M.S.I. only installed those cameras with the planet's safety in mind. After all, the last you'd want is for an assassin to slip by your normal guards undetected and kill you in your sleep, yes?" After giving that motion some thought, a shiver runs through Mallow's body and his eyes return to normal. "Brrr…No, you got a good point there." He then calms himself with happy thoughts and a few deep breaths.

"Anyways, before we get moving there is something else I feel I should mention since I brought it up. The cameras have a built in soundwave detecting system. By copying the frequencies of the soundwaves in the air and translating them via our advance databases, we are able to turn the soundwaves you project into spoken words and phrases. As long as we can see your soundwaves, then there is no limit to what we can see or hear, and it doesn't matter if you are invisible or silent." Alex quickly notices a flaw in what was just said. "Wait, how do you dete-" "Heat and motion sensors." Gemini instantly responds, knowing of the question before it was finished. Alex just stares at Gemini with a dumbfounded look on his face, with the Crayzee Dayzee and Mallow also sharing that expression. "Man, your Commander REALLY wants to cover all the bases, doesn't he?" The cloud Prince says.

The Koopa looks at the boy with his eyelids closed halfway and a frown on his face. "I've heard things around the bush Alex, about how you are from the planet Earth and about how this world has been shown through a genre known as 'Video Games', is that correct?" He asks. Alex switches his expression to a nervous grin and looks at Gemini since the comment was directed towards him. "Yes… Alex reluctantly responds as sweat starts to form on his forehead. "Let me tell you this right now. You are not in a video game that can be played through multiple times, speed running it in under an hour and attempting to grab every precious item to obtain 100% completion. This is reality, where you got only one life and no second chances. I was able to heal you in the nick of time with that Mushroom of mine, but don't think I have spares to help you out again. And I won't be around forever to save you. Neither will Mario, Luigi, Mallow or Driad. You got to learn to not recklessly throw your life away, and to take care of yourself."

Gemini then holds his mechanical arm out as a way to show proof to what has to say. "The world will do everything in its power to eat you alive, kid. Nothing is sacred." He then places his arm beside his body. By the end of his little spiel, Alex feels a bit frightened of the Koopa, especially with the harsh tone that he used as he spoke to him. His sweat feels cold, and fear is preventing him from feeling anything in his legs. "…I do admit, I didn't want to go that far, and it seems as though I got my point across a little harder than I had expected it to hit you…" Gemini says, closing his eyelids and holding his left arm out in front of him while talking in an apologetic tone. At the moment Mario is looking at Gemini with an angered glare, more than a bit annoyed with the Koopa that he had to act so harsh towards the boy, even though deep down the plumber knew that he had brought some good points up about him, the main one being what he said about how won't be around forever to bail him out of fights. Even so, he still sees the need to comfort Alex, since his body is quivering at this time. "Alex..." Mario says in a quiet, welcoming tone, but the boy stops shaking and turns to look at his friend while a false smile on his face.

"It's alright Mario, Gemini has a point, and I don't really see a reason to disagree with him. Anytime spent arguing would be better used to get through the temple. So come on, let us get a move on..." The boy then turns around and starts to slowly walk towards the temple. Mario, despite still feeling some concern for the boy, joins the rest of the group towards the temple. After he has taken a moment to examine the structure of the temple, Gemini smiles to himself as he then thinks about Alex's response. "Maybe you can make something out of your life kid…Just maybe…" He then follows the group inside.

To the surprise of the group, the first room is merely a long, wide and metallic hallway, which is lit up by some florescent light bulbs behind some glass panels on the ceiling. Gemini is examining the ground with the bottom of his palms, sniffing the air for any signs of previous electrical activity. This pikes Mallow's interest, and he kneels down beside the Koopa to find out what he is doing "Whatcha up to?" He asks. "Checking for traps. I figure with a temple where the theme is electricity, there is a very high probability that we will run into a few of them. About .8904 is our odds I'd say. Of course, if I can find any wiring, I will be able to shut everything down without any difficulty." After a few seconds of waiting, the Koopa is surprised to find that there are no trap activators in both the floors and walls. "Huh, all clear. Even so, we should stay focused on the off-chance I miscalculated." The group moves on, but suddenly an alarm starting blaring in the corridor, and the lights turn a dark shade of red. "Mama mia! Is going on here?"

A loud female voice echoes throughout the hallway from a pair of unseen speakers. "INTRUDERS, YOU HAVE INVADED THE SACRED PROPERTY OF THE ELEMENTAL OVERLORD, LEAVE NOW OR DIE!" With very little time to come up with a clue as to what is going on, Gemini and Mallow both look up at the lights and come to the same conclusion. "Of course! The florescent lights are able to detect motion! That's why these alarms are going off!" They exclaim, before the both of them turn to look at each other in shock, Gemini even offering the cloud Prince a compliment for thinking the same thing he was thinking. "Umm, hello? Why are we standing around here? We need to get moving, pronto!" Driad says, calling out Mallow and Gemini for wasting time on what is current a meager issue. Suddenly, the temple doors are sealed off by a thick iron gate and a wall also comes down in front of it, with spikes protruding out of them. Alex turns around to look at it and slams his right palm into his face, dragging his fingers down the front and groaning at this generic. "Boy, that is just SO original..." At his cue the spikes then surge with electricity along with the florescent lights rising up into the ceiling and getting replaced with about one hundred pulse guns, whose tips spark with electricity as well. Without even looking at the changes, the boy knows that what he just did was a dumb move. "...Yeah, shutting up now…RUN!" Alex exclaims after a pause to turn around.

The heroes then make a dash for the opposite side of the hall as the spike wall quickly advances towards them and the pulse guns fire streams of electricity at the ground, forcing most of the group to dodge left and right to avoid them. Gemini merely holds his right hand above his head and absorbs the electricity into his body while running. Eventually, the heroes make it to the other side of the hallway with the spike wall still following them. The group jumps off to the left as the spike wall flies out of the hallway and continues moving along the ground until its girth combined with the force of gravity causes the floor to break apart beneath it, destroying part of the small bridge that led to the other side of this wide-open, box shaped room.

After spending a few brief moments to catch their breaths, the group gazes upon the open gap in the bridge, and proceed to then bring their attention to the other side of the bridge where all they can all see a doorway to the next part of the temple. Alex cautiously moves forward, but Gemini holds him back with his left hand. "Hold on, after that last hallway, do you really want to run the risk of possibly springing another trap?" He says quietly. Alex raises an eyebrow and looks around the room. It is completely enclosed, with not a single weapon or device in sight. Then he ponders as to why Gemini is even whispering at all. "Is there any reason as to why you are whispering?" He asks, garnering a sigh as a response from the Koopa. "I don't think the last trap was motion activated, but perhaps they activated due to the noise we were making. After all, our arms were moving around enough that the traps should've activated the very moment we entered the temple, but they didn't until we raised the volume of our speech." He responds.

Gemini then turns to the side of the room that Mario, Luigi, and Mallow are on. "I know I was whispering, but did any of you pick up on what I was saying?" He asks. Mario responds by giving Gemini a thumb up. "Excellent" He says. "Now, time for us to get a move on." The heroes move away from the sides of the door and regroup on the stone bridge. They start to advance slowly but quietly across it, making certain to avoid falling off or making noises loud enough to activate any of the defense mechanisms in the room. Once they reach the gap that the spike wall had made, the heroes try to come up with a plan to get across it in one piece. An obvious solution comes to Driad's mind almost instantly. "Hey Alex, can you pick me up and fly me up above the center of this gap?" He asks.

"Huh?" Alex says in bewilderment. The Crayzee Dayzee awkwardly rubs his forehead with his vines. "I'm sorry, I didn't phrase that correctly." He says, holding his vines out in front of him afterwards. "Grab my vines Alex, and then fly above the center of the gap. I'll stay here, and act as a sort of swing that will be used to carry everyone else to the other side of this gap." He says. "Ooooooooooooh. Oh...Wow, I almost forgot that I could fly. Hope that doesn't hurt us in the long run..." Alex then walks over to Driad and grabs a hold of his vines. The flower warrior extends his vines slightly so they can wrap around Alex's arms. The boy then flies up towards the center of the gap, when suddenly, another alarm goes off. "HEAVEN'S LIGHT HAS SHINED UPON YOU FOR ESCAPING THE FIRST TRAP! THOUGH WILL SHEER LUCK HELP YOU ACROSS THIS GAP?" Says the same voice from earlier. Suddenly, pulse guns activate in the eight corners of the room, and fire streams of electricity at the center where Alex is floating at. "OH SH-!" He exclaims, cutting himself off before the end of the second word as his expression goes into a state of complete shock. Driad uses his vines to pull Alex back onto the bridge as the beams collide, and create a large electric blast field. A few electric pulse waves are sent out due to the creation of the field, forcing the heroes to duck to avoid them. Once the waves vanish, the alarm shuts off and the field vanishes. The group then stands up and brushes the dirt off of their legs.

"Ok, that plan will clearly not work while those pulse guns are around." Mallow notes. "An obvious yet truthful observation there, Prince Mallow." Gemini responds. "It would seem as though I will have to step in for this one." He then walks to the edge of the gap and holds his cybernetic arm up above him. "Your idea was a good one Driad, but this around I will use my arm as a conductor to guide the electricity over to me and absorb it. I can store large quantities of electricity into myself, so everyone should be able to cross without any interference this time." He says. The Crayzee Dayzee nods his head in acceptance of Gemini's plan, and both he and Alex execute the plan like before with the same events occurring like they did previously. This time; however, the electricity from the guns flow towards Gemini's arm. Once it connects with his arm, it pulses through his body before vanishing completely.

"Alright, go on ahead everyone!" The Koopa exclaims. Mario is the first to grab onto Driad, who then runs to the edge of the gap and jumps off of it. The force of his jump combined with his speed allows him to swing from his vines to the other side of the gap. Alex has to use most of his strength to keep holding onto his friend's vines. Once Driad lands on the other side of the gap, Mario lets go, landing on the ground himself. The Crayzee Dayzee then swings back to the other side and Luigi grabs onto him. Once they have repeated this process to get both him and Mallow onto the other side, Driad removes his vines from Alex's grip, and then he lands on the other side of the gap. He then turns around and waves to Gemini. "Hey, you need me to come over there and carry you across?" Alex exclaims. "No need to worry about me..." Gemini says with an excited looking grin painted across his face. "I can take care of myself..."

Gemini gathers electricity into his metallic arm and thrusts his hand out at the gap. The energy surges from his hand and flies downward towards the spike wall that had impacted onto the ground below. The electricity forms into the shape of a hand and grabs onto the wall. Gemini then lifts his hand up, lifting the spike wall from the ground and bringing it upward to fill in the gap. The Koopa shuts off his electric powers and the spike wall latches firmly into place, providing a safe pathway for our heroes to cross from now on, and after a moment to catch his breath he walks across the bridge to join the rest of the group. "Why didn't you just do that in the first place?" Alex then asks. "There will be times where we might end up having to divide our powers because of being part of different teams. You need to learn here and now to combine your powers together to solve puzzles and bypass difficult situations that limit others in your group. Had I just solved the puzzle for you, you would grow lazy and rely solely on me to bail you out. I may be here to help, but that doesn't mean I'm some sort of god that can do everything. Even though I'm a Koopa that uses electricity, even I have my limits." Gemini says in a stern yet calm voice. "I can agree with you on that one." Mario responds, speaking from past experiences. "But I would prefer if you wouldn't sound so arrogant about it, Gemini." Respecting the plumber's wishes, the Koopa nods his head and apologizes for his lapse of behavior.

The heroes then continue to walk across the bridge until they reach the door on the other side. As they enter the next room, they find themselves on a large, round, yellow elevator. The same voice that has been screaming out before now talks out to our heroes in a calm tone. "Amazing, most people don't even make it to this elevator. Congrats on completing floor one. Only twelve more to go until you reach the stone! Haha...Just kidding, scared you, didn't I? Seriously though, one more floor for you do deal with and you will be at what I assume is your desired destination. Good luuuuuuck." The last part of the voice's sentence is said in a sing-song like tone. After a brief period of silence, the elevator that our heroes are on activates and starts to rise up towards the next floor. It takes but a minute for the elevator to reach its destination before it shuts down with a hissing sound, like it is releasing pressure from its valves. Gemini realizes what the elevator is about to do. "OFF! NOW!" He exclaims. The heroes promptly jump off the elevator as it falls violently towards the ground below. A crashing sound could be heard at the bottom of this chasm. Alex peaks down, his heart beating loudly. It seems as though a new elevator has spawned to replace the one that crashed onto the ground. The boy pulls his head back in and turns around to look at the rest of our group.

"That was close..." He says. "Yes it was." Mario responds. "No matter though, we need to move on." After taking a brief period to calm himself down, Alex continues to follow the heroes to the next room. They find themselves inside yet another hallway, a ray of light shining brightly at the very end of this corridor. They continue on cautiously, keeping their eyes and ears open for any signs of danger. They have nothing to worry about, for there are no enemies or traps in this hallway. Something has been bothering Driad, so he decides to bring it up. "Say, we've gone through four temples so far, yet the only enemies we've encountered were those sea creatures in the Aqua Palace. What is up with that?" The plumber simply shrugs in response. "Who knows." "Perhaps the creatures in the Aqua Palace were just natives of the ocean who accidentally ended up in the temple and made it their home?" Mallow theorizes.

"That would explain a lot. But still…" Driad says in a worried tone. Upon reaching the end of hall, they find their way blocked off by a huge mass of bundled electricity that has wrapped itself around a spherical room, and is currently blocking the way to the doorway that would lead outside. There also seems to be a lever hanging on the sphere's ceiling. Mario turns to Gemini, who is leaning against the wall of the hall. "Hey-" Mario is about to ask for his help, but stops himself upon realizing that if he were to do so it we would not only be forgetting what was just said to him, but he would also be a hypocrite for going against what he himself had brought up.

The plumber turns himself around to stare at the electrical sphere to try and come up with a solution, thinking back to previous events to try and remember something. Mario takes a second look at the lever, and calls back to something that Driad had mentioned just a while ago. _"Grass based beings can't be harmed by electricity." _Though he didn't remember the exact words, the meaning was close enough for him, and he turns to Driad. "Hey, you think that you can take care of the lever?" Mario asks. Gemini smiles, for glad that the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom figured out the solution without his assistance. The Crayzee Dayzee, who was currently deep in thought, wakes up with a shock when his friend had referred to him. "Huh? Oh yeah, I suppose I could take care of it…Sure thing!" He responds, a moment spent regaining his composure and re-assuring his friend of his confidence. Driad lashes his vines out into the crackling electricity, and latches them around the handle of the lever. He gives it a hard tug, which moves it away from its previous position. The crackling noise dies down, and the electricity simply vanishes, leaving behind a stone bridge for our heroes to cross. Gemini stops leaning against the wall and opens his eyes. "Good job you two" Gemini says, walking forward and patting Driad and Mario one on the shoulders before moving towards the bridge.

The heroes continue on their quest, and upon reaching the end of the small stone bridge, the darkness of the temple starts to give way for the bright lights of the morning sun. As the heroes exit the temple, they find themselves on a large square that has a mixture of metal and stone tiles that lead the way to a large electrical generator that has a black and yellow stone floating above it. The roof of the temple is surrounded by the storm clouds that our heroes had seen at the entrance as clear blue skies fill the air, and a light breeze brings a mixture of leaves floating down onto the roof. One leaf in particular catches Alex's eye. The palm tree leaf that he dropped at Nimbus Land seems to have made its way over to the top of the temple, the identification of the leaf being made obvious due to its uniqueness among the rest of the leaves. The boy walks over to it, bends over to pick it up, and gives a good long stare. "Is it fate that you back to me? Hmmm..."

Gemini makes his way over to the stone. "Alright, don't get too comfortable with the sights. Let us fight the inner guardian and be done with this." The Koopa says. He then jumps up to the top of the generator and taps the Lightning Stone. The sound of crackling sparks igniting fills the air, as a light that's even brighter than the sunlight above fills the skies. Our heroes cover their eyes to avoid being blinded, as Gemini also backflips off the generator with his eyelids shut. When the light vanishes, the Koopa opens his eyes...And finds a small yellow creature sitting on the top of the generator. He has no visible legs and his gut and arms are a bit bloated, but he wears a regal ruby vest, holds a staff made out of hardened lightning in his left hand and wears a big crown that covers his eyes. He also has a bushy brown mustache that extends out past his cheeks. He looks around in bewilderment.

"Oh my, have I been freed yet again?" The small creature says with a royal british accent. It's clear that he can't really tell where he's at, what with the crown covering his eyes and all. Alex feels a bit sad. "This is our opponent? I have qualms with fighting the handicapped." He notes. The creature turns and if you could see his eyes, you would know that he would be looking directly at Alex with a fierce look in his eyes. "I'm not deaf you young poliwog!" The creature exclaims. "And I'm not handicapped either!" The creature then uses his right hand to re-adjust his crown so he can see again. "Ah, there we go." The guardian says with relief. He then takes a look at our heroes, and sighs. "A rag tag looking bunch of travelers are you? Oh well..." The creature sighs. Gemini has electricity built up in his left hand. "Are we going to fight now or what?" Gemini says.

"Oh calm your nerves you insolent little turtle! I have no intention of directly fighting you heroes, I mean look at me!" The creature says, referring to the fact that his body isn't exactly in the best of shape. "So you'll just give the stone to us?" Mallow asks, nervously rubbing the back of his hand in hopes of an appropriate response. "Goodness gracious, NO! That would ruin the whole point of me being a guardian! No, instead we shall play a little game of wits...Like so!" The creature slams his staff against the generator that he is floating over to turn it on. It roars up, and all of the heroes suddenly vanish to the other side of the tiled floor, each of them appearing on different squares. Alex and Driad appear on the two corners of the floor. Gemini appears next to Alex and Mallow next to Driad. Two telephone poles appear beside them, and then in the center of the tile floor is Mario and Luigi. On the opposite side of the tile floor are metallic copies of our heroes, two metallic poles, the guardian on a horse made entirely out of electricity, and his generator. Then, eight balls of blue lightning appear in front of our heroes, and the same amount of red ones appear in front of the side of the guardian. "What the heck is all this?" Driad asks in confusion. "We are going to play a game. By the command of the prestigious lord of elements, I, the Lightning Djinn, challenge the heroes of this age to a game of chess!" He exclaims. "Chess? What is chess, exactly?" Mario, Luigi, Driad, and Mallow ask in unison. Gemini and Alex turn to their heads to look at the rest of the group, and then stare across at each other. "We're doomed." They say.

_Next Time: Lightning Fast Wits on Display_


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: Playing with Lightning**

"You guys seriously haven't heard of chess?" Alex asks, bewildered by the fact that the famous hero of the Mushroom Kingdom had not heard of such a marvelous game. "Nope." Mario and Luigi say. "I've lived in the woods for many, MANY years, so you really think I would've heard about chesse?." Driad adds on, followed by Mallow raising his hand. "I've played Checkers before. Are both games similar in any way?" He asks. "No Mallow, no they are not" Gemini quickly points out. "Oh..." Mallow says quietly, lowering his hand back down by his side. "Do you chaps need a gander at the rules of chess before we begin?" The Djinn asks. "No, we can handle it ourselves." Alex says. "Alright, you got five minutes to explain the rules before we begin the game." The guardian responds.

Alex turns to look at the rest of the group. "Ok, I will explain things as quickly as I can. First off, our objective." He brandishes his right pointer finger at the Djinn. "What we need to do is move the chess pieces on our side of the board over to their side in a way that will prevent the King, A.K.A. the guardian, from being able to move." He then points towards the lightning orbs in front of him. "These orbs represent the Pawns. They are our weakest unit. They can move two steps forward on their first move, but they can only move in a straight line, unless a piece is diagonally in front of them, in that case they can move in the direction of the piece and capture it. Normally, they can only move one square at a time."

Alex presses the palm of his left hand against his chest. "Driad and I are what they call 'Castles'. To put it bluntly, we are the second fastest moving piece in the game. We can move in four directions. North, south, east, and west, AND we can go as far as we are able to, as long as no pieces block our way. As for Gemini and Mallow, they are the Knights. Unlike the other pieces, they cannot be blocked by their own men. They are able to move two space up and one to the left or right, or one space up and two to the left or right. The lightning rods we got are known as Bishops. Their method of movement is to cross the board diagonally via their own colored squares. The one closest to me is on a silver square, thus it can only go diagonally across the silver squares on the board. The other Bishop near Gemini and Driad on the other hand can move across the stone squares."

"Finally, we got the King and Queen. The King can only move one square in every direction, but it has to be careful to not get boxed in by the opponent's pieces, otherwise a checkmate could happen, which means we lose. Should the King get caught in the line of sight by one single piece though, then it is simply called a check, though then we are only limited to moving pieces that would either capture the piece that's threatening our King, or simply move the King out of the way if possible. The Queen is the most powerful piece in the game. It can move in all eight directions, and is this vital for capturing most of the pieces on the board." As Alex finishes his explanation about the pieces, Luigi raises his hand. "Question, Alex." He asks. "Yes Luigi?" Alex says in response. "Umm...Just who is the king and queen on our side of the board?" Luigi nervously inquires, as if he knows the answer to the question already.

"Oh yeah. Mario's the King, and you...Are...the...Oh..." Alex says in a deadpan tone, realizing just why the man in green is acting the way he is. "Darn it..." Luigi says, leaning his head down against his chest in sorrow. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better Luigi, you ARE the most powerful piece in the game, and YOU are the one who has to protect Mario this time around." Alex says, hoping to lift his friend's mood. "I understand that, but why do I have to be the female piece?" Luigi asks, kicking the air in front of him. "You wore a princess' dress TWICE, that's why." Mario says, adding a snicker to the end of his sentence, infuriating his brother in the process. "Mario, you know that I-" The man in green is swiftly interrupted by storm clouds going off in the sky. It seems as though the very same clouds that once rested beside the roof have risen up to cover up the calm skies above them. The Djinn has his staff raised up into the air, but then he lowers it into a pocket that's placed on the saddle of his mechanical horse. "Your five minutes..._Are up_." He says in completely serious tone. Intense crackling sounds spark in the clouds above, as the sounds of miniature explosions go off inside of them. A bright flash of light accompanies each thunderous boom that comes from the clouds as lightning smashes down onto the pseudo-chessboard below, electrifying the perimeter of the metallic squares. Some of the electricity moves upward into the sky to create a type of cage that prevents any and all forms of escape.

"Hah, so you show your evil side after all, guardian." Gemini says, putting his fists out to his side with electricity charged in them. "Oh please you wretched example of a turtle species, don't think you can break the rules and fight me normally, especially not when you and I have the same affinity. You are in my perimeters now, and unless you beat me in this game than thou shall not escape! If you lose, then the electrons in your nervous system will be drained out of your body and converted into energy for my generator, leaving your bodies as lifeless husks for the ravenous vultures that swarm the skies!" The Djinn exclaims in a less refined tone. Alex's eyes widen a bit and he nervously points at the guardian. "I think he just lost his accent during that exclamation of our imminent doom..." He says.

"I will make the first move. Of course, since two of you seem to know the basic rules of chess, it shouldn't be too hard to guess what my move will be." The guardian says, motioning his hand to command the pawn that's in front of him to move two squares forward. "Your move, heroes." He says with a smirk on his face. "Mario, is it ok if me and Gemini take command of the pieces until we get captured?" Alex asks. Mario crosses his arms to think, and then moves them away from himself and nods. "Go right ahead Alex, you two know what you are doing, after all." He responds. "Alright!" Alex exclaims, proceeding to gesture to the pawn in front of Gemini to move one space forward. Once it moves the guardian waves at "Gemini" to get it to move two spaces up, and one to the left. The metallic copy of Gemini rises up into the air and floats two spaces forward, then lands on the ground and scoots over to the left by one space. After this move, Alex gestures to the Pawn in front of Driad to move two spaces forward, which it does end up doing.

"Hmmm...What is he planning?" The Djinn curiously asks himself, rubbing his chin while thinking over Alex's current moves. "Left Bishop, advance two spaces to the upper right!" He then exclaims. The lightning rod standing to the left of him disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears on the exact square that he had commanded it to go to. "Heh, I see what he is trying to accomplish." Gemini says. "I got this one Alex." He then moves himself two spaces forward and one space to the right. The Djinn's lips are upturned into a crescent grin which graced his face from cheek to cheek, for the heroes have fallen for his plan. He flips his metallic mount to the left and looks at the metallic copy of Driad, which turns to the right to look at him as well. "Castling!" He thus exclaims. His horse starts galloping two squares forward, and the copy Driad moves in his direction as well. Before the two of them collide with each other, the Djinn's steed applies pressure to the ground and jumps into the air to fly right over "Driad" and land safely on the square behind him. Both pieces then turn to look at the heroes. Most of the group is understandably surprised, confused, and angry at the same time.

"Wait just a cotton-picking minute, did his King just move two spaces in one move?" Driad asks. "Yeah so?" Gemini says with sarcasm. "That is against the rules isn't it?" Driad says while sadly tilting his face to the left. "Screw the rules, I-coughcoughcough" Alex says, forcing himself to cough to avoid finishing that sentence. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me there. Seriously though, it's a legitimate tactic called Castling. Basically, if there are two open spaces between the King and the left Castle, then the King can move two spaces to the left, and the Castle will be moved to the right of the King. This creates a pretty strong defense if done at the right time, but it can only be performed once per game. There is also a technique called Reverse Castling, which requires the Queen, Right Bishop, and Right Knight to be moved. The King still moves two spaces, but this time to the right, but the Castle advances a little farther than before. The original Castling is a somewhat better technique to set up though, and the other technique requires you to put your Queen out into the open, which if done too soon could cause you to lose your most powerful piece, and possibly the game as well."

"Ok, got it. I understand that technique now." Mario says, now having calmed down from thinking that the guardian had cheated. "Now, time to make our next move..." Gemini says. He looks over the board, and decides that he will move the Pawn in front of Mallow two spaces forward. By waving at the pawn, it does just that. The Djinn motions to the pawn that's in front of the copy of Mallow, and it as well moves two spaces forward. "Alright, time to get something done here." Gemini says. "Move two spaces to the upper right, Bishop number two!" He exclaims, directing his comment towards the telephone pole that sits between Luigi and Mallow. Like the metallic one on the other side, the pole disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears in the exact square that Gemini wanted it to go to. "Advance my Knight, and take his pawn!" The guardian exclaims. In a period of a few seconds, the copy of Gemini moves two spaces up, and lifts up into the air before proceeding to float towards the right, right above the pawn that is placed there.

With a mighty thud, the copy of Gemini slams down onto the ground, smashing itself directly on top of the ball of electricity. The metallic body surges with electricity for a few brief seconds, and then the crackling noises caused by the sparks die down with the pawn now "dead". Alex gulps, a mass of saliva going down his throat after he does this. He is worried about what will happen to the living players when they are attacked by the opponent's pieces. Gemini notices and is quick to pick up on this. "Hey, you don't look too good, shall I continue commanding our side of the board for now?" He asks. "What happened to 'I won't always be around to bail you out?'" Alex asks, mimicking Gemini's tone of voice when he repeats what he had said. Gemini turns to look at the opposing chess pieces and gets a confident grin across his face. "This is a game of strategy and seeing as both you and I are the only ones that have any knowledge of this game, I'm just going to take over until you get over that nervous fit that you are having, because if I go down, then you are our only hope Alex."

"Huh?" Alex said in bewilderment. By the tone of voice Gemini spoke in along with his grin, it sounded like he was planning to sacrifice himself later on. "Take down the Knight, Bishop number two!" Gemini exclaims. The telephone pole turns towards the copy of Gemini and lashes its wires out at the metallic being. The wires pierce through the body, which in turn cause the being to shatter into nothing but particles of metallic dust. The pole then teleports over to where the Gemini copy used to be. "I see you are fighting back now." The guardian says. "But your foolishness shall be the sword that ends your life! Bishop! Advance one space to the upper right!" He exclaims. The metallic pole on the right side of the board teleports to the square that is diagonally next to it. Gemini motions to the telephone pole on the right side of the side of the board he is on. "Don't let him take one of our Castles, advance one space backwards to cut him off!" He exclaims. The pole teleports to the square that is to the bottom left of the square that he is currently on."Very well, you wish to lose a piece? Then I will grant you your wish!" The Djinn exclaims. The metallic pole teleports itself so that it is floating directly over the telephone pole. The metal pole brings itself down upon the wooden pole, and it's crushed into nothing more than chunks of wood and wires. The next few moves play out like this:

-Gemini moves the pawn in front of Luigi in a diagonal direction to capture the metallic pole

-The Djinn moves the pawn that used to be in front of him up one space.

-Gemini moves back to his original spot.

-The Pawn mentioned previously is used to capture the pawn that had captured the metallic pole three moves back.

-Mallow moves two spaces up and one to the left to capture the pawn mentioned in the last move

-The copy of Mallow moves two spaces up and one to the left.

-Gemini moves the pawn that is in Driad's line of sight down diagonally to capture the opposing pawn that is directly in his line of sight.

-The copy of Mallow moves two spaces up and one to the right

-Gemini moves the pawn that is behind the copy of Mallow one space forward.

-The copy of Mallow moves two spaces up and one to the left to capture one of the pawns

-Mario moves diagonally to capture the Knight.

-The copy of Alex moves one space to the left

-Mario moves back to where he was before.

-The copy of Alex moves forward to capture the heroes' pawn that stands before "him"

-The Pawn in front of Mario moves two spaces forward

-The copy of Alex moves forward and takes the Pawn in Gemini's line of sight.

At this point, Gemini looks over his position and realizes that he has just screwed up. "Heh, it seems as though I thought too quickly just now." Gemini says. "No matter what happens this turn, that rook is going to take me. I don't want to sacrifice the Bishop to save myself, so I guess I'll have to..." Gemini stays silent at this point, and simply moves two squares up, and one to the left, putting himself in Driad's line of sight, and right beside the copy of Alex. The Djinn raises his eye, his curiosity piqued by Gemini's move. "You didn't move the Bishop to defend?" He asks in a curious tone. "I see no need to sacrifice others in order to save myself; I will gladly give my life in order for my teammates to take victory." Gemini says, his body as motionless as the chess pieces themselves. "Hmph, then it's my move..." The guardian says. The copy of Alex floats up into the air and moves over to position itself over Gemini's body. Our heroes look on in total despair, for they think they can't do anything to save Gemini from his fate. Alex turns to look at Gemini, and snaps out of the state of paranoia he was just in.

"Gemini! No!" Alex says, attempting to run over to where Gemini is. The Djinn will have none of that. With a snap of his royal fingers, the electricity that surrounds the metallic squares on this chess board rise upwards, creating miniature cages around the squares to prevent anyone from moving to them during his turn. Alex backs off before he can make contact with the cage, and the electricity goes off. "I will have none of your shenanigans in my court, boy!" The Djinn exclaims, his eyes showing intense fury at Alex's reckless behavior. He then turns to look at Gemini, the chess piece still floating overhead. "I have one last request before you set the piece down to kill me and end your turn." Gemini says. "I will honor your request turtle." The Djinn says, keeping his staff at gut's length so he can hear the Koopa's last request. Gemini's face gets a wide smile across his face as he shuts his eyes and points to the scarf on his left arm. "Don't get any blood on this scarf; I kind of made a promise to keep it clean." He says at such a volume that only the guardian can hear him. The Djinn nods his head, and the copy of Alex falls from the air, smashing right down on top of Gemini's skull, and squishing him into nothing but a puff of smoke.

Alex notices this, and turns to look at the Djinn with a seething fury filling his eyes along with tears of anger. "BASTARD! What did you do to him?" Alex exclaims loudly. "Oh quiet! I don't need such foul and coarse language around here! Your friend is fine, he's just been sent away to another realm for the time being. You organic lifeforms don't get killed during this game, you only get sent into another realm until the rest of your team wins." The Djinn says. "Grr...I'll save you quickly Gemini..." Alex says. "Driad! Mallow! Get ready to move!" The two heroes turn towards Alex and nod their heads in agreement with determined looks on their faces. "Driad, take out that fake copy of mine!" Alex says. Driad raises his vines into the air and moves them around to form the shape of a leaf blade, he then rushes forward and slices the copy of Alex in half. The copy's two halves then turn into metallic dust particles.

"Playing seriously now? Very well! Advance my Bishop! Take the creature made from the heavenly bounties of nature itself!" The metallic pole teleports itself right above where Driad is. "It's up to you now guys!" Driad exclaims, closing his eyes as the metallic pole smashes down onto him. "Don't worry Driad, I got this." Alex says to himself. "Go Mallow!" He yells out. "Understood!" Mallow says in response, moving one space to the right and two spaces down. "Advance my pawn!" The Djinn exclaims. The pawn in front of him moves one space forward, ending up right in front of Mallow. Alex just says nothing on his turn, and walks one space to the left. "Now my Generator, it's time for you to go take his Knight!" The Djinn exclaims. As the Generator turns to look at Mallow, the Djinn looks over the board and realizes that HE is now the one that has screwed up, and it's too late for him to take his move back.

"…Well I'll be darned..." The Djinn says as his Generator charges through the squares on the board and rams into Mallow. The impact of the generator sends Mallow flying off the chessboard and into the electric cage, where he disappears in a puff of smoke upon impact. Alex then calmly walks forward across the board until he is right in front of the Generator. Without even batting an eye, Alex lifts his hand up and simply flicks the Generator in the center. This small hit still counts as capturing the piece, and the Generator poofs away into nothing but dust. Alex advances to where the Generator once was, a confident smile painted across his face. "Your move" He says quietly. The Djinn starts sweating a bit. "Advance and take down his remaining Bishop my Bishop!" He exclaims. His remaining Bishop teleports over to our heroes last Bishop and squishes it, though this victory is short lived due to Mario moving over and taking it out with one hard punch to its structure.

"You lose in six moves, no matter what you try and pull off at this point, Djinn." Alex says confidently. He then waves at the farthest right pawn to move two spaces forward. The pawn scoots across both squares and then freezes in place. The Djinn nervously motions to the copy of Driad to move to the right by one square. "Game Over." Alex says. "Luigi, if you may do the honors." Luigi tugs on his cap and runs right at the copy of Driad with his hand charged up with electricity. Luigi delivers a powerful punch to the gut of the copy, and a bolt of lightning comes crashing down from the sky above and atomizes it. The man in green then stands where the copy used to be and crosses his arms. "Check" Alex says, his body remaining confident of their victory.

The Djinn reluctantly moves forward one space to get out of the "Check" position, and lowers his head in shame for having fallen to the sin of pride. "Go now my pawn." Alex says, motioning to the pawn from earlier, which causes it to move one space forward. The Djinn weakly raises his hand, and the pawn to the left of him moves one space forward. Alex walks forward and lightly kicks the pawn in front of him to "kill" it. "You only got two moves left." Alex says. The Djinn nods his head, and has his steed move one space to the left. Alex walks two squares downward, and looks at the Djinn. "Make your final move, Djinn." Alex says. The Djinn waves at the pawn that is standing two spaces to the right of him, and it moves one space forward. "Luigi, move to where that pawn just was." Alex says. Luigi does just that, and the lightning cage that surrounds our heroes starts to dissipate.

"Checkmate." Alex says. The entire area becomes fuzzy, in a way it starts to "short-circuit". The area becomes pitch black, before the lights of the morning sun come back into view, revealing the guardian standing on top of the Generator in the same spot it used to be at, with all of the heroes reunited in front of it. The Djinn looks tired and wrinkly. "You have won, heroes...You outplayed me in a game I so wonderfully enjoy...And I thank you for that..." He says wearily. Mario is a bit confused as to how Alex won. "Wait, going by what went on during the game, couldn't the Djinn use that one pawn to capture Ayou?" Mario asks. "He could have, yes, but it would've just simply prolonged his defeat. The pawn I set up next to me would've taken that pawn, and then the pawn all the way on the other side of the board would be able to freely walk to other side of the board without any problems whatsoever. When it did that, it would be upgraded into a Queen, which would then proceed to team up with Luigi and trap the Djinn into a checkmate situation." Alex responds.

"...Chess is so confusing..." Driad says. "Wait just a moment there Alex, I would've had to take control of the pieces if you went down. I didn't know about the upgrading thing, so how would we have won?" Mario asks. Alex blinks a few times and puts a hand behind his head and nervously laughs. "Ahahaha, yeah, I...Didn't think about that..." He says in embarrassment. "So you won under the pretense of luck? …No, those are the words of a sore loser. You won under the belief of your friends, your partners…" The Djinn then smiles. "You are one crazy wanker...but you have earned your stone...I shall retire again, and this time I hope that you heroes are successful in your quest..." He says, his body slowly becoming clearer and clearer, until it vanishes completely. The last thing to vanish is his face, and he still had that same happy grin on it. The Lightning Stone is all that remains of him. Alex picks it up and tosses it to Mario so he can pocket it away, then turns to look at Gemini.

"Thanks for your help." Alex asks. "Oh?" Gemini curiously says. "If it wasn't for your sacrifice, then we wouldn't have won." Alex says. Gemini closes his eyes and shakes his head. "No, it wasn't because of me that you won the game. I screwed up, but you were the one who was able to take my mistake and turn it into a victory for us. You did well Alex, you did well." Gemini opens his eyes and lifts one of his arms up, placing his hand down right onto Alex's right shoulder. "Keep it up." Gemini suddenly hears a ringing noise coming from his shell, and takes his hand off of Alex's shoulder so he can reach into his shell and pull out a slim yellow phone. "Hold on guys." Gemini says. He then walks off to the side for a moment, opens the phone up, and puts it up to his ear. "Hello?"

_"Lieutenant? Thank god you are alive."_ A deep voice says through the phone. "Commander?" Gemini asks in a confused tone. "What's going on?" _"You vanished off my radar for a of couple minutes, and then out of nowhere you showed up again, I thought something was up, but I couldn't reach you due to some sort of interference frequency coming from the Lightning Palace's rooftop. Anyways, I guess you got the Lightning Stone now, right?"_ Alpha asks. "Yeah, everything is going perfectly. No one has been hurt, and the only resistance we have seen was from the Guardians." _"Well I'm glad no one has been hurt, because you guys are the only ones I can call upon to help out right now!"_ Alpha says in an angry sounding tone. "Huh? What's going on Commander?" Gemini exclaims. The heroes turn to look at the Koopa, whose tone is becoming more and more desperate sounding as time passes. _"You and the others need to get back to the Mushroom Kingdom stat! Bowser is launching an attack on Peach's Castle!" _Alpha exclaims. Mario manages to overhear this and waves his arms back and forth, his eyes widening in shock. "MAMA MIA!"

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach's Castle's rooftops have been set on fire, as Toads are panicking left and right, wildly flailing their arms in fear while they attempt to find somewhere to hide. Inside Peach's Throne room, the princess is standing up by her throne with her hands clenched near her chest. Her eyelids are slightly closed, and she looks on in fear as the massive Koopa King grabs the elderly Toadsworth and proceeds to fling him off to the side his delicate body smashing directly into a wall and creating a crater from the impact. Bowser advances towards the Princess, his loyal and powerful magician Kamek floating behind him on his old wooden broomstick. Bowser arrives directly in front of Peach, his towering presence casting a shadow over the Princess' body.

Lying around the room are the injured bodies of her royal guards. As the tapestries are burning from the bittersweet flames that came from the Koopa King's mouth, it is revealed that the doors to the room have been ripped off completely. "W-w-why have you come here to kidnap me this time Bowser?" Peach says, a feeling of fear that she has never felt before in her life overcoming her body. Bowser lets out his signature evil laugh in response, which sounds even more menacing in this nightmarish situation. "Princess Princess Princess, what fun would there be if I told you of my grand plans? BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" As Bowser continues to laugh, Peach can only let out a desperate and futile cry for help...

"!"

_Next Time: The second phase of Interference_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: Interference II: Requiem of Heavenly Stars**

After hearing the disastrous news about Peach's Castle, the heroes rushed out of the Lightning Palace post-haste so they could ride the whale back to Toad Town. "Quick! We got to make it back before Bowser gets away!" Mallow says, his tone showing the sense of urgency and worry that the entire group is feeling. "Wait!" Gemini exclaims. This exclamation makes the heroes stop in place and turn around to look at Gemini. "What is it?" Mario exclaims, clearly not in the mood to be stopping at this time. "You really want to take that whale back to Toad Town? I came here in a jet, so we can just take that instead." The Koopa says. "It WOULD take us longer if we took the whale." Alex points out. "No offense whale." He then directs towards the whale. The whale nods it's head in the water. "None taken. It seems you are in a hurry anyways, so I'll just head back to the docks by myself. Glad I could be of service for today Mario." The whale says, turning its body around and sinking into the water, vanishing out of view after a few seconds.

"Ok, let us get going, now!" Alex says. The heroes rush over to the side of the island, and find Gemini's massive jet parked in front of them. It's a sleek silver jet with thick hydrodynamic wings, Plexiglas windows, three black polyester seats, and a snazzy golden tail that shines brightly due to the rays of the sun reflecting off of it. "Only three seats?" Alex lowers his arms next to his hips and stares blankly at the jet. "How are we all supposed to fit in this thing?" Alex says. "You aren't! Get in the jet now!" Gemini yells out. He then jumps on top of the jet and lifts open the windows to the jet's compartments, and then goes down into the cockpit of the jet and presses a yellow button on the control panel to start the engines up. "GET IN!" He then declares to the group, who scramble to get into the other two compartments of the jet. Mario and Luigi are crammed up in the middle compartment, while Mallow, Alex and Driad are all stuck together in the back compartment. Gemini flips a small silver trigger on the control panel to make the windows on the jet close, sealing our heroes in to each of their separate compartments.

"Time to set off!" Gemini flips over a glass box with another silver trigger underneath it and flicks it up with his thumb. The jet starts to slowly float off of the ground as the steel landing gear folds up back into the vehicle. The metal rods bend backwards to fit neatly into the underside, and the panels that kept the jet from falling over fill up the holes in the vehicle. Once it has risen high enough above the palace, Gemini moves his hand towards a big, glowing red button. "Get ready guys, I'm about to activate Mach 5!" Gemini alerts the group. The rest of the heroes' eyes bulge out of their sockets in fear. "Mach 5?" They all say in surprise. Gemini presses down on the glowing button, and the engines on the back of the jet flare up. The burning blue and orange tipped flames that roar from the engines blow away the clouds that are up in the sky, and also turn a couple of Goonies into a pair of steaming hot roasted chickens. The jet then speeds through the air at a high velocity.

The heroes feel the pressure of moving at such speeds, as their bodies vibrate around rapidly in the compartments. Their skin wiggles around like the stormy waters of the sea, their faces starting to peel backwards, make their eyeballs more pronounced and their jawline more visible. Gemini is wearing a metallic black seat belt, so he suffers no negative repercussions from going Mach 5. In fact, he's simply whistling a tune, unaware of the fact that his passengers' bodies are becoming slightly misconfigured. However, he does notice that he is about to ram into one of those big green hills with eyes. "Ah great..." Gemini stares blankly at the hill while reaching for the eject button. The jet rams right into the hill, and blows up in a fiery holocaust. The burning remnants of the jet crash down towards the ground below, creating a flaming crater for every part that impact with the ground.

The heroes are stuck in the compartments of the jet, which are gently floating towards the ground below suspended by some yellow parachutes. The bodies of the group have formed back into their original shapes, but they are all still panicking over going through that experience; save for Alex, who is happy as can be. "WOO HOO! THAT WAS FUN! LET'S DO IT AGAIN!" Alex says with his arms as outstretched as they could be in that cramped compartment of his. Mario woozily looks at the cockpit. "Are we there yet?" He asks. "Actually, we are conveniently floating right over the roof of the Castle right now. If you look below you can see a big hole in the roof where the Princess' throne room is." Gemini says, speaking in the tone of a pilot attendant. Mario scoots Luigi's fainted body off to the side of the compartment and takes a peek outside the plexiglas window, where there is in fact a big gaping hole in the roof of the Castle, along with some burn marks that were obviously left behind from Bowser's attack. "Peach..." Mario says to himself, a feeling of sadness and a tiny bit of anger overcoming his emotions.

Once the capsule lands safely on the battle torn floors of Peach's Castle, the parachute floats down to cover it up. Gemini flips open the windows of the capsule before it gets covered up completely though, and the heroes get out nice and slowly. Save for Mario though, who leaps out as fast as he can and shifts his head back and forth to analyze the damage to the castle. Driad covers his mouth up with his vines and runs off to the nearest bathroom, while the rest of the heroes look around for any survivors. Mario notices Toadsworth fainted on the ground nearby, and runs over to try and wake him up. A few pokes on his brown toadstool cap are enough to wake the elderly retainer up. As Toadsworth slowly regains consciousness and tries to gain a grasp of his surroundings again, he notices Mario kneeling down in front of him to check if he's ok, and stands up in a heartbeat, muttering a series of words in a panicked tone. "Bowser...Princess...Flames...Claws...Magic...Mario!" He mutters out, the fear of Bowser's attack still clenched to the recesses of his mind.

"Toadworth, what happened here?" Mario asks. Toadsworth is shivering in fear with cold sweat running down his body as he tries to remember the events that transpired on this dreadful day. "I...Don't remember much Master Mario. It was a very peaceful day in the Castle, when suddenly Bowser and his elderly magician companion showed up out of the blue and started to set fire to the room around us. I was so distracted by the devastating flames tearing apart the ancient and majestic tapestries that I didn't notice Bowser approach me. All I remember is him grabbing me, and the rest is all a blur...Minus the Princess letting out a high pitched scream for you, Master Mario." Toadsworth stops sweating and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down. The plumber closes his eyes and tips his red hat in front of him, a few tears of sadness dripping out of his sockets and trickling down his cheeks.

"Master Mario?" Toadsworth curiously asks, noticing that Mario seems to be crying. The plumber lifts his hat back up and his expression is back to being the same old happy go lucky expression that he is more often seen having. "It's okay Toadsworth, I will save the Princess like I always do" Mario says. "Good on you, young Master! Now umm...Who is that yellow-ish Koopa fellow that is with you?" Toadsworth says while looking directly at Gemini, who is currently picking up little bits of ash from the ground and examining them by placing them on his tongue. "Oh? Him? He's a-" Mario is interrupted by Gemini, who walks over and extends his hand out to greet Toadsworth. "Lieutenant Gemini of the Mushroom Spy Industry, it is an honor to meet such a refined and regal retainer such as yourself. Your services to the Princess and the Kingdom as a whole have been both honored and used as inspiration for our missions." Toadsworth's cheeks turn a slight shade of red as he extends his hand out to the Koopa's and shakes.

"Really?" Mario whispers into Gemini's ear. "In a way, yeah. You probably wouldn't believe it, but Toadsworth used to be one of the Castle's royal guards, and before age set in he fought many battles to keep the place safe." Gemini whispers back to the plumber in return. Toadsworth turns his head upon hearing bits and pieces of the two's conversation. "You say something young masters?" He asks. The Koopa turns his head back to look directly into Toadsworth's eyes and shakes his head. "No we did not." He then says. After the two of them have finished shaking, Toadsworth picks his small brown cane off the ground and uses it as support while he walks around the Castle. "Oh dear, I'm going to need some help in cleaning this Throne room up...Huff Huff, I say!" With that remark, the elderly retainer exits the throne room, leaving the heroes to plan their next move. All of them gather around in the center of the throne room, and Driad comes back from the bathroom, his mouth clean, but his body looking a bit tired and dry. "Gemini, never use the Mach 5 ever again..." He drearily says before huddling up next to the rest of the group.

"I wouldn't worry about that, seeing as the jet got totaled…Oh yeah, Alpha is going to kill me for that one when he finds out." Gemini states, the second part of his sentence whispered only to himself. "Anyways, now that I've examined the room…" The Koopa crosses his arms, and closes his eyelids as he finds that he is incapable of bringing himself to say what is on his mind. "And?" Mario curiously asks. "I…I have no clue as to what Bowser did with Peach." Gemini taps his foot on the ground repeatedly as he turns away to avoid seeing the look on the plumber's face. "What?" The other heroes utter in shock, while Mario in particular thinks that there has to be SOME sort of clue. "Perhaps Bowser took her back to his castle?" Mario suggests. "That…That may just be a possibility. Let me check." Gemini opens his eyes and reaches into his shell to pull out his phone. He flips it open and dials a number, putting the phone up to his ear to listen in. After a few seconds of ringing and static, Gemini gets an answer from the other line. _"Hello? Which agent is this?"_ A familiar gruff voice says. "Lieutenant Gemini, sir." The Koopa responds. _"Ah, Lieutenant. Were you able to make it in time?"_ Alpha asks. "Unfortunately, no." Gemini sadly says, his lips showing a frown after reporting this failure to his superior.

_"Well, sometimes life happens like that Gemini. It's not the end of the world, Bowser will never bring any harm to Peach, so just focus on the Reincarnation mission for the time being." _Alpha says. "Wait sir." Gemini interrupts. "Did Bowser go back to his Castle at all?" Alpha is silent for a few seconds, and then responds back to Gemini. _"No, I've been paying attention the whole time since Peach's Castle was attacked; Bowser has not been seen on ANY of the cameras since his attack, not even in his own Castle. I'll keep looking, but you got your orders, get back to work. This is Commander Alpha, signing off."_ The phone then projects a loud hang-up sound until Gemini closes the phone and puts it back into his shell. "…No dice guys. Bowser is nowhere to be found." The Koopa says, taking a deep breath in before he reluctantly tells the group the truth. "As much as it pains me to say this to you Mario, but it would be best to forget about Bowser for now until more info comes up. He won't harm Peach, so all we can really do is focus on our current quest."

Mario was overcome with grief. For many years he had helped rescue Peach from Bowser's scaly clutches without hesitation. Nothing stopped him, not lava, not bombs, not even the universe collapsing on itself was enough to keep him away from Peach. But now, in a moment of carelessness, he realized that there was nothing he could do to save Peach at this time. He had pretty much no choice but to continue on this quest of his. He also realizes what Bowser had meant when he left the Lightning Palace. He wasn't being stupid, he was taunting the him, purposely holding back against the guardian so he could sneak back to the Mushroom Kingdom once they had arrived, and while they were busy there, he would be able to capture the Princess without any opposition...It was a grand plan, and he had fallen for it. Mario's heart suddenly felt heavy, then tight, and in the span of a second his body simply gives out from exhaustion and collapses onto the floor below. This garners a horrified reaction from the rest of the group, who all kneel beside the plumber to make sure that he is ok. The last words Mario hears before closing his eyes are "Mario? Wake up Mario!" Which come directly from Alex's mouth...

_There are tales of Seven Stars that float in the skies of an eternal night. They are said to have been around since the planet was born, and are the symbols of all the good dreams and wishes that the inhabitants down below share. They live in their starlit sanctuary, guarding their sacred treasure, the Star Rod, from the clutches of those who would wish to defile the peaceful ways of the planet. They are known as the Star Spirits, and the recent chain of the events that have transpired has left them uneasy__..._

In a pitch black room, there is a sense of peace and tranquility, and then a small bundle of star lights begin to form in the back of this room. After this, another bundle of lights appear, followed in turn by five more, until the room is surrounded by bright lights. Then they all vanish, leaving behind seven star shaped beings that float above the air in a majestic and celestial fashion. Though they all share the same shape, each of their bodies has a different defining characteristic that separates them from each other. The first star that appears from the lights bears a dark-yellow tone, blue oval shaped eyes, and a small brown and bushy mustache across his mouth. This star appears to be in a state of peace. The second star bears a much lighter shade of yellow on its body, with a pair of green oval shaped eyes on his face, a small brown book in his left hand, two pink blush marks on his cheeks, and a small pink bow tie where his mouth should be. Despite his childish appearance, one could see that he is the clever one of the group.

The third star is a bright pink female star, with a decorative orange ribbon wrapped around her arms and flowing behind her back. She also has a pair of red oval shaped eyes. One could tell that this star is the female archetype of the group. The fourth star is a light-blue male star with a blue sailor's cap on his head and a pair of blue oval shaped eyes on his face. He is the tough guy of the group. The fifth star is a violet colored male star with a pair of shining glasses sitting on top of his eyes, with a pair of bushy brown eyebrows standing above them. He also has two smooth bundles of hair underneath his glasses that represent his mustache. He is the scholar of the group. The sixth star is a peachy colored female star with only a pink ribbon wrapped around the top of her head in the shape of a bow tie. Her eyes are oval shaped and pink, and one look into them would make you feel safe, thus she is the motherly one of the group. Finally, there is an elderly yellow male star in the center of this group. He has a big, gray, bushy mustache that covers the entire lower half of his body, and covers the lower part of his eyes, making it impossible to tell what color they are. He has two curved and gray eyebrows above his eyes. He is the oldest and wisest of the seven stars.

The rest of the room lights up, revealing that the seven stars are floating over seven clear crystal pillars that are placed in the sparkling waters that fill up the room. In the center of the room is a octagonal shaped pedestal, that of which is also standing on an even bigger octangular platform. A stairway leads to a pathway that would take anyone to the exit of this sanctuary. Several archways form the inner structure of this place, and above them lie a blue painted wall with multiple dots that each represent the stars in the sky. Ten stone pillars reach up from the wall and almost touch the night sky itself. There are more patches of blue walls between each pillar, and the dots that infest the walls are much bigger in comparison to the ones from the previous wall. The starlit regions of space can be seen through the hole at the top of the sanctuary. The elder star raises one of his starry points upward to get everyone's attention.

"Attention, fellow Star Spirits of Plit." The eldest one says in a calm yet mature tone. His mustache moves up and down as the words exit his wrinkled mouth. "I have called you all here today to discuss a matter of the utmost importance. As we have seen in the last three to four days, there has been a great number of activity in the Mushroom Kingdom. The Dark Witch Cackletta has risen again, followed by her follower Fawful. Both of them were thought to be dead, and their return is something to be wary about." The Purple star speaks out. "And what about the mysterious circumstances involving Bowser's recent kidnapping of the princess? Unlike his other attempts, I did not feel the normal vibes coming from his body like I usual do. I felt an...Evil intent coming from his kidnapping." "An excellent observation Skolar." The Eldest star says. "The Bowser we've seen, as bothersome as he may be, has rarely had an evil intent emanating from his body. There were only three instances before where this has happened. Once was when he came up to Star Haven and stole the Star Rod, another time was when he planned to recreate the universe for himself and Peach, and again when he stole the Grand Stars to increase his size and make a galaxy for himself to inhabit. During those three times his general behavior was…Frightening, to say the least"

"On top of that, there also the matter of the M.S.I. getting involved, and Mario's current quest to reincarnate the Elemental Overlord." The Light-Blue star interjects. "Yes Muskular, Alpha has never been one to get involved with Mario's quests, yet this time he's had one of his own soldiers join up with him." "What about the boy called Alex Whiter and the other one called Joe Dark?" The Female Star with the Ribbon says. "The boy called Alex Whiter is the one destined to fulfill the prophecy Mamar, and we all knew that this day would soon come..." The Eldest star closes his eyes and thinks. "Eldstar, you didn't answer Mamar's question about Joe Dark. Is something the matter?" The Star with the book asks. "Yes Klevar, something is wrong with his appearance here...You see, there are two parts to the prophecy. The first part depicted in the tablet Professor E. Gadd found states that the Overlord shall be reborn and bring peace...The second part states the following..."

_"Before peace can be brought, the shadows shall be wrought...For the Overlord to win, he must look within...The road to peace will be slow, until he can conquer his mortal foe..."_

"Joe Dark shows a great animosity towards the boy known as Whiter. Could the prophecy be referring to him as the Overlord's mortal foe?" The Star with the full brown mustache asks. "Perhaps Kalmar...Perhaps it does...But these developments cannot be ignored. That is why I have called for our strongest warriors to come here today." Eldstar opens his eyes and signals with his arm for someone to come in. "You may approach the spirits now, Star Warrior." Right on cue, a small twinkling orb of light floats into the Sanctuary and rises quietly up the staircase, reaching the octangular pedestal quickly yet gracefully. "Hello, o' wise and majestic Star Spirits..." The Orb says in a gratuitous tone. The voice that emanates from the orb sounds like it is coming from the noblest of knights. "No need to be courteous, we consider you to be our equals, noble Star Warrior." Eldstar says. "You are too kind...You have been around for many years, and for as long as I have lived and have served as your herald, I will never be so rude as to place myself above you all." The Orb bows its body, even though it looks like it hasn't moved at all.

"How polite of you to mention that..." Eldstar says. "Now, I assume you have been listening in on our conversation, correct?" "Yes, I have." The Orb says. "You wish for me to accompany Mario as protection, correct?" "That is what we are asking you to do, yes." "I am going to need a body though to fight properly..." "That matter has already been taken care of. The body you previously inhabited has been placed on the outer rims of Star Haven, ready for your use at any time." The Orb raises his body and turns around. "Then I have my mission to accomplish. I will not fail you, mighty Star Spirits, or my name isn't !" The bright light surrounding the orb fades away, revealing a golden three-dimensional star that is surrounded by a few sparkles of light. The star floats out of the Sanctuary and the Star Spirits themselves fade away, leaving the place as pitch black as it was before they appeared...

Back down on ground level, Mario is seen resting in his own bed. He wakes up when the morning rays of the sun peak through the cracks of a nearby window and shine into his eyes. The plumber thrusts himself upward and starts panting in fear, sweat trickling down his face. He quickly checks his pulse to make sure that he is still alive, and is relieved to find out that he is. "What happened?" Mario asks, grabbing onto his head like he just woke up from a bad dream. "Stress got to you and made your heart shut down briefly. It's a good that I was around, or you might not have made it." Mario turns his head around and finds Gemini sitting down on a chair next to him, arms crossed in front of his chest and his legs in a criss-cross position. "…So, I had a heart attack?"" Mario asks. "Something to that effect. You were probably having a lot of emotional stress over Peach's kidnapping this time around, and thus it applied a lot of pressure onto your heart. I used my electricity to get your body working again. Even so, you were knocked out for a while there."

"How long, Gemini?" Mario asks, worried about what the answer might be. "Well, it is the dawn of the next day, so not very long. Don't be concerned about it; we carried you back to your house so you would be able to sleep peacefully." Gemini responds. He then gets up off the chair and stands on his feet when he hears a knock at the door. "Speaking of that, the others went over to E. Gadd's to get the location of the next temple. I volunteered to stay behind and be the bodyguard. Alex looked like he wanted to stay behind, but he never spoke up, so it ended up being a unanimous decision. I'll be right back, so take a few minutes to stretch before we head off." With that, the Koopa heads out of Mario's room and goes straight for the door. The plumber takes a few minutes to open and close his hands to make sure he has feeling in his body, and after finding that his fingers are able to poke down into the flesh in his palm and it hurts, Mario feels glad to be alive and pushes the sheets off his bed and jumps off of it with his signature jump, landing on the ground with a mighty thud. He grips the edge of his cap and a wide grin can be seen across his face. He then spins around with one foot out and places it behind him, taking one of his hands and snapping his fingers, ready to go. "Let's-a go!" At which point it is impossible to tell that Mario was ever depressed in the first place!

Gemini is outside the house with the others when he hears Mario shout one of his famous catch phrases and turns around to look at the house, a smile painted across his lips. Alex tilts his head to try and see what his friend is looking at. "Is Mario OK?" He asks. "Yeah, he seems to be up and moving." The Koopa turns around as Mario opens the cedar wood door of his house and jumps from the front porch all the way to where our heroes are standing. "So, where is the next temple?" Mario enthusiastically asks. "Glad to see that you are awake again bro." Luigi responds. "Anyways, the next temple is called the Terra Cave, a massive cave in a desert just north of Moleville." "Moleville?" Mallow says. "Woohoo! We can ride the mine cart roller coasters after we grab the Element Stone!" Mallow raises his arms up in joy and his mouth goes into a circular shape. "No Mallow, we don't have any time to ride the roller coasters." Gemini says, a bit upset by the fact that Mallow is placing pleasure before duty.

"Fine" Mallow goes back to his normal position. "Shall we get going then?" He asks. "You up for it Mario?" Alex says, looking at the plumber with a feeling of concern on his mind. "I will do my best. Let's-a go!" Mario exclaims with an amazing amount of vigor. "Then we are off, TO MOLEVILLE." Gemini lets out a triumphant roar, and the heroes begin their journey towards Moleville.

Meanwhile, in the very deserts that the heroes are destined to traverse, a heavy dust storm is blowing through the sandy plains. In the middle of this storm, the familiar figure of Joe Dark sits on a lone boulder, staring at his left hand. Though it is faint, some dark energy can be seen emanating from his hand. "This is...Quite interesting..." He says to himself. "That witch seems to have been right on the mark about me...Hehehe" Joe Dark clenches his fist and a small burst of darkness goes off around his fist. He then stares out into the desert with his eyes shut slightly and a slasher smile across his face. "This is all so intoxicating…Which means that Whiter will die...TODAY! HAHAHAHAHAHAH! HAHAHAHA!" Joe Dark's laugh becomes deeper and coarser sounding as he continues on, but no one is able to hear him in the vast reaches of this stormy desert...

_Next Time: Darkness in the Desert_


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note:  
><strong>

I must apologize for the lack of chapter yesterday due to 's Log-in thing having an error that day. So to owe up for it, there might be another chapter uploaded later today. I'm saying "might" because I only got two hours to edit at the moment, and though my computer is almost fixed I'm not certain if it will be done by the afternoon. So just a heads up for all you loyal readers. Thank you, and enjoy.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 21: Deserted Absolution<strong>

The heroes depart from Toad Town by heading out through the southern gate. One quick and uneventful trip past a few familiar locales ends with the group arriving at the front entrance of Moleville. There is not much to see as far as unique sites go. Moleville mainly consists of a few one story triangular houses made out of stone, plywood, and metallic panels. A few random cacti litter the mountainous area, and part of the mountain has an entrance to the Coal Mines where the moles of the town work daily. The desert that our heroes are heading to lies just beyond the entrance to the Coal Mines, off to the right. "Well, it looks like we won't be staying here long after all." Gemini says, staring towards the desert. "Yeah, I suppose not." Mario responds. "Still, seems weird that the town is abandoned. Wonder why that is?"

As the heroes continue onward through Moleville and head into the sandy plains of the desert, they fail to notice the sign near the entrance of the town that says "To any visitors: Today is the grand opening of the Moleville amusement park located deep within the mines, if our services aren't in business today then you now know why. Thank you and have a wonderful day!" From where the group currently stand they can see lumps and hills of sand, as it appears that the expanse goes on for miles on end, leaving our heroes feeling a bit worried. "Man, finding the cave could take weeks...The sands of this desert look to be never ending, a continuous sea of sand grains and cacti..." Alex says, lifting a hand over his eyes to block out the bright hot rays of the sun and get a better look at the desert. "Lucky for us that Driad absorbs the sunlight like a sponge, Mallow can constantly refuel himself with HP Rain, and Mario and Luigi both have caps on." Gemini says. "That means that only Alex and I have to worry about getting sunburned or dealing with possible heat stroke." He then retracts his left hand into his shell to pull something out. His arm pops back out and he outstretches his hand out to Alex. In his hand are two half-red half-black capsules in the palm of his hand. "Take one of these pills Alex and place it into your mouth." He prompts.

Alex nods his head and extends his arm out to take one of the capsules from Gemini's palm. The boy opens his mouth up wide and lifts his tongue up. A pool of saliva has formed underneath the tongue, and that is where he places the capsule. He then shuts his mouth up tight as the shell around the capsule dissolves away. Some dust that was stuck inside the capsule also dissolves instantly in the saliva once the shell has fully vanished. Alex feels a burning sensation in his mouth, but that feeling vanishes in a few short seconds. "That's odd, I don't feel any diffe-GACK!" The boy flinches upon feeling a sharp pain going through his right arm. He turns and finds out that Gemini has stabbed a needle into that very limb. He then pulls the needle out of his body and jabs it into his own arm, his body remaining almost motionless as he does so. He is injecting himself with some kind of liquid, and then pulls the needle out of his body and tosses it off to the side. "There, preparations are complete." He says.

"What did you stab into my arm Gemini? And what was with that capsule?" The pain in Alex's arm subdues itself, and he wiggles it around to make sure that it is ok. The Koopa turns to Alex and stares at him with one eyebrow raised. "I gave you a capsule that releases a special sunblock prototype into your bloodstream. The needle injection stimulated your body to send the cells that made up the prototype into the membranes of your skin. The prototype should now be leaking out of the pores and sweat glands to create an invisible shield that will protect you from all the harmful effects of the sun...For about ten hours, anyways." Alex stops swinging his arm around and both he and the rest of the group stare blankly at Gemini. Gemini looks confused. "Is something the matter?" He asks. "There are so many reasons as to why what you said doesn't make any sense." Mallow points out. "There are better things to question in this world than simple Biology." Gemini says, closing his eyes and letting out a quiet little laugh. "Just be thankful you actually have protection against the sun in the first place."

Alex tilts his head and thinks for a moment. "He has a point Mallow. Thanks for doing that Gemini..." He says. "But wait, are you sure it was safe to use the same nee-" "Are we ready to continue onwards now?" Gemini swiftly interrupts. The heroes nod their heads, though Alex is a bit reluctantly to nod his at first because he still had that question on his mind. "Ok then...ONWARD!" The Koopa exclaims. The heroes start to walk into desert, when Gemini suddenly freezes in place, his body paralyzed by a sudden chill coming down his spine. He looks around and sees nothing suspicious in the immediate area, even though he senses an overbearing feeling of bloodlust coming from somewhere. The Koopa shifts his eyes back and forth to double check for any suspicious activity, but all he sees is the wide open desert, and the rest of the group. Alex turns around and sees Gemini still standing outside of the desert. "Hey! Are you coming along Gemini?" He exclaims, waving his hand out to grab his attention. Gemini stops looking around and pays direct attention towards Alex. "Sorry, thought I saw something for a moment there." He responds. But even with that said he can't shake off this feeling in his gut that something is lurking in the desert waiting to ambush them. He stays on guard as he runs to catch up with our heroes. The prints he makes in the sand are instantly filled in when a light breeze blows some sand over them.

The heroes advance through the sandy plains of the desert, with a strong wind starting to build up as they walk. Gale blows a wave of sand grains towards the direction of the group, but they simply continue onward, putting their arms above their face so they can not only push back against the wind without being blown back but so they can also block any of the sand from getting into their eyes. The wind suddenly dies down in an instant, making the desert feel eerily quiet. Gemini's eyes shift back and forth, as the murderous intent he sensed earlier is becoming increasingly stronger with each passing second. The Koopa puts his hand into his shell and reaches for the staff of his trident, slowly pulling it out as the murderous vibes grow even stronger. Driad turns around and notices his friend pulling his trident staff out of his shell. "Gemini, what are you doing?" He asks. A cold sweat starts to form at the top of the Koopa's head, the drops trickling down his face and flowing past his neck down into his shell.

"It's not Cackletta..." Gemini whispers. At this point the rest of the group turns around and each stare at him with puzzled expressions on their faces. The Koopa's pupils grow bigger, and his eyes shift upwards so he can look into the sky. He sees a small black crack appear across the sun that is slowing growing in size, as if it were approaching the ground. Gemini shifts his arm out in front of him quickly and extends the prongs of his trident out. "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Gemini swings his trident at Driad to knock him out of the way. A direct hit aimed at his gut sends him flying backwards, causing him to knock the rest of the group down onto the sandy ground. The Koopa then jumps out of the way to avoid an incoming attack...Only for a thick oak wood stick to fall from the sky and land on the ground with a thud. The heroes shake their heads and turn to look at the "threat" that Gemini was worried about, only to see the aforementioned stick. Mallow in particular looks at the stick with a deadpan expression on his face. "It's a stick...You knocked us into the sand, because of a stick?" Alex pulls his face out of the sand when he hears about what the "threat" was. He does not look pleased in the slightest. "A STICK? I just got a face full of sand because Gemini was worried about a stick?" The boy stands up and turns to look at Gemini, who still has a cold sweat dripping down his face while he is kneeling down in the sand. "I...I don't understand...It looked like we were under attack by someone...I felt some very strong murderous vibes..." The Koopa stands up, looking at the stick in both fear and confusion. The rest of the heroes get up and brush the sand off their clothes and bodies. "I'm sorry guys, but it seems that I was mistaken."

Gemini turns his trident back into its staff form and puts it back into his shell. He still feels the murderous vibes in the air, but they are not as heavy as they were before. "That's odd..." He thinks to himself. "I could've sworn that I saw a human like outline behind the stick's shadow...Maybe...It was just a mirage?" He takes a deep breath in through his mouth and blows out to relax his body. A few breaths and his body stops producing the cold sweat he had before, and he feels a great sense of relief, even if he can still sense the murderous vibes. "Ok, sorry again you guys, let us continue onward now." He then says. "Just try and be a little less cautious from now on, we got a lot of desert to cover, and we might not have enough time before that barrier of yours wears off." Mario says. "Right, understood." Gemini replies, nodding his head and walking back over to where the group is currently at so that they can continue onward. Alex quickly peeks over his shoulders to takes a second glance at the stick. "How could a stick just fall from the sky?" He thinks to himself. "...I wonder..." While he continues walking and thinking, an ominous shadow looms high up in the sky. Joe Dark is floating in front of the sun, his hands covered in dirt and a few splinters poking out of his skin. Despite how big the splinters look, it seems as though Joe Dark doesn't even notice them, instead his eyes are fixated only on the group.

"Hmph, I expected that annoying looking turtle to break easily...Still, I have succeeded in making a couple of them a little more paranoid of a possible attack..." The boy gets a grin that spreads from cheek to cheek. His teeth look a lot more pointed now in comparison to when he first entered Plit. Without even paying direct attention to his hands, he pulls out all the splinters from them and drops them down towards the ground below. "Those could've been annoying for me to deal with later on...Oh well, time to kill Whiter. HAHAHAHAHA!" Joe Dark's evil laugh echoes across the peaceful sky, but Gemini is the only one who manages to hear it. "We ARE being followed by someone..." He thinks to himself, shifting his eyes to the left. "Someone is going to attack us..." The Koopa reaches back into his shell, and Alex, who was still looking back at the stick, suddenly notices his pal's hand movement. "Going to knock us down again Gemini? Hehehe..." He says in a deadpan tone in his voice. "No, I just have a scratch on the back of my neck that I need to itch badly. Personally, I blame the sands…" Seeing as Gemini's hand is placed in a position that makes it look like he really is scratching, Alex simply shrugs his head and continues looking on ahead.

The heroes proceed to walk for another thirty minutes, still unable to find any signs of a cave at all. During this time, Gemini has continued to have his hand down in the back of his shell. Luckily, no one has bothered to check up on him since the incident with the stick. Unluckily for him and perhaps the rest of the heroes as well, the murderous intent that Gemini has been sensing the whole time is becoming increasingly stronger at a much more rapid pace than before. It's as if the person that is projecting these vibes is flying at our group at a breakneck pace. Before this "mysterious" person appears near where the heroes are, Gemini pulls his staff out of his shell, extends the prongs, and turns around with the trident sticking out in front of him to block the punch of one Joe Dark. The boy's impact with the Koopa's trident creates a shockwave field around the base of both of their feet, pushing the sand away from their bodies in the form of a miniature wave. The force of this wave trips the rest of the group up unexpectedly, but this time Alex was more prepared for a possible attack and lightly jumps over the shockwave, turning his body around to confront their attacker, and is understandably surprised by who it is.

"Y-you..." Alex stutters, squinting his eyelids to confirm that he is not seeing a mirage. This is in stark contrast to Joe Dark's face, who is looking overjoyed to see Whiter again. His eyes are wide-open AND he has an evil looking smirk across his face, not even seeming to care that Gemini had managed to block his attack, seeing as he is still continuing to apply force to the Koopa's defense. As he is being pushed back by Joe Dark's punch, Gemini's feet skid across the sandy surface slowly but surely. The rest of the heroes get up off the ground and turn around to see the current scene of the battle. "Yes Whiter, I'm back to kill you again! Screw the witch and her stubby little green partner; I've realized now that I don't her damn help in taking you down!" Gemini looks behind his shoulder as he keeps skidding along the ground, looking at Alex with an overabundance of confusion in his eyes. "WOULD YOU MIND TELLING ME JUST WHO THIS GUY IS ALEX? ALPHA DID NOT BRIEF ME ON THIS PERSON!" He desperately exclaims.

"Long story short, he's a human from Earth just like me who came to Plit by going through the portal left behind by E. Gadd's Stargadd machine; he also has the ability to fly and for some reason really wants me dead." The Koopa turns to look back at Joe Dark. "Ok then, now that I'm up to speed..." A smirk appears on Gemini's face, and he applies some strength into his arms and legs to push against Joe Dark's punch. "What the?" Joe Dark takes a moment to look away from Alex and pay attention to Gemini. The Koopa is able to break Joe Dark's attack by putting enough force into his arm muscles to shift Joe Dark's arm away from the trident's staff. He also takes advantage of Joe Dark's brief moment of vulnerability to cut him across the face with the prongs of his trident. Joe Dark jumps back after being struck by Gemini's trident, a wound now imprinted onto his left cheek. Blood drops out of the wound, but Joe Dark simply protrudes his tongue from his mouth and licks the blood that is trickling down his cheek. He looks at Gemini with a nasty grin on his face and a bloodlust glare in his eyes, with only one word slipping from his sinister tongue, said in a deep, chilling tone. "Tasty..."

"I see you have a taste for blood…But sorry to say, I'm not going to let you get your slimy mitts on my comrades!" Gemini flips his trident around and it skids along the sand, the two forces colliding to create a small trail of fire that turns the sand to glass. He then tosses his weapon at Joe Dark with the bottom part of the staff sticking out in an attempt to impale Joe Dark through the skull. But the boy calmly shifts his head to the left as the trident flies past his face without so much as a scratch marking his complexion. Gemini snaps his fingers to create a spark of electricity in his hands, and then thrusts his arm out in the direction of the trident. The energy flows out of his hand in multiple directions, causing Joe Dark to get evasive and back flip over a stream of electricity that was heading right for him. After the boy flips through the air, he decides to comment on Gemini's power. "I see, so your affinity is Electricity. You are an interesting turtle, but if you are going to defend Whiter then you will simply be another corpse doomed to rot on the ground upon which you walk!" Joe Dark floats in place seven stories above the ground, the sun casting his menacing shadow onto the ground below.

While he is floating in the air, Gemini uses the electricity he fired off from his hand to grab onto the trident while it's still flying through the air. The Koopa pulls the trident back into his hands, and without wasting a second to pause and think he spins himself around on the ground to build up momentum for tossing his trident. Once he has built up enough he places his right foot firmly in the sand behind him and points the trident at Joe Dark's general direction. Then with a thrust of his arm he tosses the trident with a great amount of force put into the action, sending it hurtling towards where Joe Dark is floating. The boy simply closes his eyes and flips his body upside down to avoid the trident. His short hair sticks downwards towards the ground, where he then opens his eyes and looks at Gemini with another one of his menacing grins on his face. "You missed again, turtle!" He then notices that Gemini is rubbing both of his hands together, creating a multitude of crackling sparks in between the palms. Joe Dark slants his eyelids to get a better look at what the Koopa is doing. "What is that stubborn turtle doing now...?"

"Hey now, just how fast can you think?" Gemini says. "Cause I honestly doubt that it is faster than lightning!" He then moves his hands away from his body as in both hands there are now two orbs made out of pure concentrated electricity. Gemini waves his hand, causing one of the balls of electricity to rocket out of Gemini's hand and head towards his still flying trident. Once the orb makes contact with the trident, it instantly stalls, a field of electric energy beginning to form slowly around the prongs of the weapon and extending out to just barely cover the center of the staff. The Koopa decides to remedy this situation by rapid firing about eight more orbs from his hands, sending them flying directly into the trident. After all nine orbs have melded into the trident's small electric field; the field has grown to the size of three times the circumference of the trident itself. Joe Dark flips himself around and turns around to look at the field that Gemini has now created with his arms crossed and his face showing signs of amusement. "Oh, now...What have we here..."

Gemini takes this opportunity to clap both of his hands together, making a sound that imitates that of a loud thunderclap. "Arte Voltaje: Nueve Chispas Molinillo! (Voltage Arts: Nine Sparks Pinwheel)" He exclaims. Joe Dark peeks over his shoulder when he hears Gemini shouting out the name of his attack. The electric field around Gemini's trident starts pulsating wildly, with its shape becoming disfigured. The boy looks back at the trident's field just in time for a thunder bolt to spark out of it and smash him right in the chest. This attack causes him to reel back a bit in pain, and after grimacing at the minor injury he insults the Koopa's efforts with a fate tempting "That's it?" At that prompt, eight more thunder bolts spark from the electric field, coming out in eight different directions. Joe Dark's expression changes from one of confidence to that of surprise. His pupils shrink, his evil grin becomes a scared frown, and his arms are placed away from his hips. He walks backwards on the air, his body unable to properly react to this attack. "What the hell...Why can't I run away?" Joe Dark thinks to himself. He then feels some paralyzing pain coming from his nervous system, particularly in his heart. "Did he..." He says to himself, turning around to look at Gemini, who has a confident grin on his face.

"That's right, Joe Dark, my first lightning bolt messed up your ability to command anything related to your nervous system. Now your body can't do what you want it to for twenty-five Seconds. How sad, but that's all the time I need to end you!" Gemini exclaims, snapping his fingers to command the eight extended lightning bolts to turns towards Joe Dark's general direction. The lightning bolts bend at the tips, pointing themselves at their desired target. Then the lightning bolts are released from the circumference of the sphere and all converge on Joe Dark's location. What happens then is a sight to behold. The impact of all eight lightning bolts creates a massive electric explosion that makes a loud sounding crackling noise, which is promptly followed up by a piercing ringing noise as the explosion shrinks down to the size of a sand grain, and then becomes a simple electric line that vanishes into nothing but dust particles. Gemini's trident falls to the ground, but a quick magnetizing spark of electricity allows him to pull the trident back over to his hand where he then calmly spins the trident around in a circle by his arm and dispels the prongs so he can put the remaining staff back into his body. The rest of the heroes' mouths have become agape after watching how Gemini quickly and marvelously dispatched of Joe Dark. The Koopa only has a few words to say at this time. "That takes care of him..."

As Gemini starts to turn around and walk away, Alex suddenly feels intense malice coming from the air. "Wait...This can't be right..." He notes, turning to look at the sky, and seeing Joe Dark floating in the air with his body looking completely unharmed in spite of Gemini's attack. The heroes also see this sight and their pupils shrink in fear. Sweat begins to form in their skin. Gemini turns around and upon seeing that the enemy is alive, the normally calm and collected Koopa is suddenly overcome with fear, with his eyes having become wide and his pupils dilated. Joe Dark is simply laughing wildly, his arms in the same confidently crossed position they were in before Gemini's attack, and his eyes are shut as his head is flung back during his bout of laughter. "HAHAHAHAHAH! YOU IDIOTS ARE SO EASY TO FIGURE OUT!" Joe Dark lifts his head back up and looks at our heroes with his eyes wide open ad he proceeds to mock them for their foolishness. "I figured you out quite easily little Koopa!"

"You see, when I let go of that stick up in the air earlier, it was to test to see how you would be able to react. When you reacted by knocking those other fools out of the way because you assumed you were under attack I realized then that you were one of those "Highly Protective" types, who will try and finish battles quickly to avoid the risk of anyone getting gravely injured by the enemy! I also realized that because of this fact, you would go into battle with me without thinking clearly, seeing as you were so quick to defend yourself when I attempted to attack Whiter. You used your strongest attack on me, that was a smart move, I compliment for doing that you wretched scumbag; however, you were an absolute idiot for wasting time explaining how your timed paralysis move worked AFTER it had already hit me. Thanks to your stupidity in wasting your time like that, the paralysis wore off and I was able to escape your attack, with not a single scratch on me. Meanwhile, I can only assume that you have wasted most of your energy on your strongest attack, while I'm fresh and ready to annihilate every last one of you! Not only that, but because those foolish 'heroes' have been injured after being tripped up by the clash of our two physical blows, there is no one in your group who has neither the energy nor the will power to try and attack me again! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Joe Dark stops laughing and looks at Gemini with an evil smirk on his face. "Oh wait, you aren't done yet, are you? I sensed something odd about you as you attacked...Oh I get it...You are hiding some of your power from me, aren't you? You sly little son of a bitch!" While Joe Dark has been busy calling out the heroes for their foolishness, Gemini puts his right hand behind his back and charges some electricity into his hand again. This time around though, the lightning starts becoming darker in color, slowly changing from blue to black. Joe Dark is not one to ignore this. "Idiot! It's too late to try a second attack now! You think you got cold feet at his moment? HAHAHAH! YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THE FATE THAT AWAITS YOU IN HELL!" With this laugh, the feral boy raises his right arm into the air and black energy starts to form around it, projecting a menacing black aura around the outline of the attack. The dark energy eventually flows over the rest of his arm, covering it completely in darkness. And as for his normal human fingers? They have turned into jagged demonic looking claws, a product of the energy seeping through his skin. "Let me show you FEAR!" He then creates a miniature dark orb in the palm of his demonic hand, which rapidly doubles in size with each passing second until eventually the orb grows to be about three times the size of Joe Dark's body. His eyes turn a dark shade of red, his teeth become fanged, and his grin shows an expression of absolute insanity in it. "DEATH TO WHITER AND EVERY DAMN PERSON WHO DECIDES TO DEFEND HIM!" His voice echoes into the sunny sky, the tone both demonic and menacing.

The heroes are frozen completely in fear, and Gemini closes his eyes to brace for death with the full knowledge that nothing in his arsenal will allow him to stop Joe Dark's attack. "I'm sorry Alpha...I failed this mission...Not only that, but I failed to see you again...Ka-" Gemini's last thoughts are interrupted when from out of nowhere, a medium sized blue and crystallic laser beam cuts through the clouds in the sky and breaks through the center of Joe Dark's dark orb, causing it to break apart and dissolve into nothingness. The heroes' look on in complete and utter shock once the orb is suddenly stopped like that. "Wait, what just happened?" Driad asks. "We...Were saved?" Mallow asks. "Wait, that beam looked familiar…Could it be?" Mario says, recognizing somewhat the beam that destroyed the orb. Joe Dark looks pissed off that his attack was stopped, but goes back to grinning evilly and decides that this is only a minor set-back. "You haven't lived yet! Miracles don't happen twice!" Suddenly, a prism colored disk of light comes from the sky and hits Joe Dark's darkness covered arm, slicing right through the veil that surrounded it. The veil vanishes soon after, and a cut appears on his arm, which starts bleeding profusely. "The hell?" The boy turns around, and looks on in complete shock as he sees the one who attacked him. The group feel a glimmer of hope approaching and their expression turn from those of fear to that of joy, which is even more pronounced on Mario and Mallow's faces.

Floating in front of the sun is a wooden doll that is no bigger than Mario; his shape being very plainly humanoid. He has orange curls kept under a pointy blue cap. Draped over his shoulders is a blue cape, and he wears brown leather shoes. His eyes are immobile, with vertical black lines running directly downward to his jawline. Joe Dark scowls, and looks at the doll with his eyes looking crooked and angry. "Who the hell are you? Are you the outside guardian of the Terra Cave? Are you from this world, or do you serve under the same bastard that that Koopa works for? Tell me, damn it!" Joe Dark has gone off the edge now...The doll simply lifts his head up, his right arm pointed directly pointed at the boy's body. "My name...Is Geno. I do not serve the person you have mentioned, nor am I a guardian or a being from another world..." The doll says in an honorable tone. "Then who do you serve?" Joe Dark asks. "I serve...a higher authority..." Geno calmly responds, the doll and the feral boy staring each other down, with the both of them waiting with anticipation for one or the other to make the next move...

_Next Time: Reunion with Two Familiar Faces_


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note:  
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I'm really starting to get the feeling here that no one is actually reading this story because of a lack of reviews. I'm not going to get desperate and beg for replies, but I really would like some criticism for this story whether it be positive or negative. Either way, time to continue..

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><p><strong>Chapter 22: A Section of Earth Clarified Only as the Number of Which There Can be no Division!<strong>

The heroes stand in the desert plains, their eyes fixated only on the confrontation between Geno and Joe Dark. Not a single one of their eyelids blink in the face of this event. In the sky, both warriors have not moved a single inch from where they were positioned before. The doll has his right arm pointed at Joe Dark's body, ready to fire at him at a moment's notice while the boy's body is excreting blood from the wound inflicted on his arm by Geno, but nonetheless he remains motionless, not even flinching at the fact that he is losing blood by the second. His dark red eyes continue to stare at Geno's wooden face, a sense of overwhelming anger coming over his body. Both warriors are waiting for the other to make a move, a light wind ruffling their cloths as they wait.

"You going to make a move, one called Joe Dark?" The doll says, his voice showing not a single hint of nervousness, nor does he show any signs of backing down. Joe Dark wiggles his right hand ever so slightly, a tiny bit of darkness building up around it, before it fades away into nothingness. His eyes widen, and he feels confused about why he can't summon anymore darkness. "What the..." He asks in bewilderment. Geno looks on at Joe Dark's predicament with a look of victory on his face. "So your affinity is that of darkness, is it not?" The boy turns his eyes back towards Geno's general direction, looking on with a sense of curiosity as to what the wooden doll had done to him. "What did you do to me?" He viciously exclaims. Geno lowers his arm down to the side of his body and lifts a finger up to point at the scar across Joe Dark's arm, and the boy himself turns his head to look at it.

"I am one with the stars themselves, the light radiating from them is the perfect antithesis for your darkness, and thus I was able to easily hurt you with my two attacks." Geno folds his wooden arms across his hard chest and nods his head. "It's a done deal, dark one. You can attack me if you wish, but since I have now neutralized your darkness powers with my Geno Whirl attack, there is nothing you can do to harm me." The doll closes his eyes, while Joe Dark by this time is completely pissed off, his pupils shrinking in size as his eyes widen to the point where you can see the blood veins in them. "YOU BASTARD DOLL!" In an instant the boy springs forth, attempting to rush Geno with every last bit of strength he has. But in the time it takes one to blink, a bullet hole has appeared through the right side of Joe Dark's hip. With a tiny bit of his flesh now torn right out of his body, blood comes dripping out of Joe Dark's mouth, causing him to slow down. It is revealed that one of Geno's fingers has flipped up, revealing a small little gun hole from which the bullet that pierced his foe was fired from.

"Did you seriously just try to rush someone who uses projectiles? ..." Geno's eyelids remain closed, but his mind clear and focused. Joe Dark extends his left hand out in a futile attempt to grab Geno's head, but another bullet from his finger pierces the center of Joe Dark's hand, tearing out even more of his flesh in the process. The boy moves his hand away, and starts to lose vision in his eyes. Though he starts to see the doll as nothing more than a blue and brown blur, to him he is nothing more than another obstacle in his path. With what may be his last breath, he has but one question to ask. "Who are you?" He weakly asks. "I am the herald of the stars, as such, I go by many different names. But while I remain in the body of this wooden doll, I am referred to by both friends and enemies alike as...Geno." Joe Dark gets a wild looking grin across his face, and as his eyes start to close, he decides to get the last word in. "This won't kill me...This will merely prolong my revenge against Whiter...When I come back, I will kill you as well, Geno, for defending that wretched pile of crap..." With those last words spoken, Joe Dark's eyelids shut all the way, and his limbering body falls quietly towards the sand below. His impact with the ground is both quick and subtle, as barely any sand is flung up off the ground once his body hits down. Any sand that did pop up off the ground is blown away by the warm desert breeze that is blowing through the area. The doll opens his eyes up and lowers his head to look at Joe Dark's almost lifeless body, but does not say a word and instead looks at the rest of our heroes, who have watched the scene unfold with vacant expressions on their faces.

The doll floats down towards the ground below, landing right next to the excited heroes. There is nothing but silence for a few brief moments, as the group continues to stare at Geno in wonder. He is staring back at them, as the desert winds blow his "hair" against his face. Mario is the first to break the silence, walking slowly over to Geno and extending his hand out to welcome him. Geno's wooden mouth becomes curved in a way that makes it look like he is smiling, and he extends his left hand out to complete the welcoming ritual with Mario. "It has been a while Geno, and once again your timely appearance has been helpful for us." The plumber says, his voice carrying a heavy tone of gratitude in it. The two heroes retract their hands back to the sides of their bodies and bow their heads in respect for each other. "It was not a problem Mario." Geno responds, his voice sounding a little more relaxed than it did before.

"So what brings you down here anyways? I thought you were sent back to protect the Star Road..." Mario asks. From what he could remember, Geno was the guardian of the Star Road that had only come down to the Mushroom Kingdom because a mechanical blacksmith/warlord named Smithy broke the Star Road using a gigantic multidimensional sword that went by the name of "Exor". Mallow and himself had met him in the Lost Woods when the doll was fighting one of Smithy's soldiers, a giant walking bow named Bowyer. After the three of them had defeated the officer, Geno joined them on their quest to recover the lost pieces of the Star Road and defeat Smithy. After he was defeated, the Star that was Geno's true form left the body of the wooden doll and went on his way back to Star Road, to never be seen again.

"Oh, I can explain that..." The doll responds. "You see, the Star Road I protect and the Star Road you traveled across to get to Star Haven are both the same thing. Simply put, when my duty to defeat Smithy was complete, my celestial body went back to Star Haven under the request of the Star Spirits, where I continued to defend Star Road." Geno folds his arms and lowers his head. "That is, of course, until today. The Star Spirits have grown weary of the events that have transpired on the planet below. They were especially concerned about the boy called Joe Dark..." Geno raises his head and looks directly at Alex. "In particular, his relationship with the boy called Alex Whiter." The boy points to himself in confusion, not having a particular clue as to just what the two heroes were talking about from where he is standing, but he does wonder why Geno is looking at him.

"However, I took the initiative to kill Joe Dark so the Star Spirits could rest easy. With that out of the way, I will no longer need to ask Alex any questions...So, who are the Koopa and the… Crayzee Dayzee supposed to be?" Geno asks, tilting his head again to look at Gemini and Driad respectively, pausing momentarily with eyes widening upon noticing the flower warrior. "You didn't find that out from the Star Spirits?" Mario responds. "Nope, I was simply told to find and help you guys out, I wasn't given very many details about the current situation besides the stuff about Joe Dark and Alex that they knew about." The doll walks away from Mario and heads over to the meet with the rest of our group. Gemini, who is currently kneeling on one leg due to it spraining from Joe Dark pushing against his trident. He does; however, have his left arm outstretched to greet Geno. "I've heard all about you before, Star Warrior." He says, acting kind not only out of respect for saving him, but to be courteous to a being from such a high plane of existence.

The doll glances at the red scarf that is gently wrapped around Gemini's left arm, and instantly recognizes him. "Ah, so you are the esteemed Gemini of the Blood Thunder." Geno extends his arm out to shake hands with Gemini. After the two of them have done this they give each other a patriotic salute and Geno leaves Gemini to tend to his leg while he heads over to meet Driad. The flower continuously blinks his eyelids at the sight of the doll, as if there is something familiar about him. "Have we met before?" Driad asks, leaning his heading to the left and placing a curled up vine against the bottom of his lips. The doll closes his eyes and shakes his head. "I do not recall ever meeting one such as yourself." Geno says, making sure to avoid looking at the Crayzee Dayzee as he speaks. "Anyways, what is your name, little flower?" The doll extends his hand out to greet Driad. The flower, still thinking that he has seen this figure somewhere before, extends one of his vine hands out to greet Geno. He gives him a little smile, and joyously says his name. "My name is Driad."

"A very interesting name, Driad." Geno flinches at the mention of the name and retracts his hand, and it is at this time that Geno notices Mallow standing around waiting patiently for Geno to recognize him. "It has been a while, Prince Mallow." Geno walks over and instead of giving the Nimbusian a handshake he wraps his arms around his fluffy body and gives him a hug. After he has finished this warm embrace he lets go and folds his arms behind his cloak. When the blush on his face has vanished, Mallow notices that Geno's doll body looks exactly the same as it did when they last saw each other. "I see you got your old body back. Just how did you manage to find it?" The doll closes his eyelids and thinks for a few seconds about Mallow's question. "The Star Spirits found it themselves, apparently it was still in the same condition it was in before, but it was just as usable as the old days." He then opens his eyes and takes another look at Mallow. "You seem to be doing well for yourself."

"Why thank you Geno." Mallow responds, chuckling after the comment had been spoken. "You seem to be a little more mature than the last time we met. A lot more composed as well...Yes, you'll make a fine king of Nimbus Land one day, that's what I believe." The cloud Prince's face turns a bright red color, and he rubs the back the back of his head in embarrassment. The doll then decides to walk over to meet the man in green. "Ah, I've heard about you before. Mario talked about you while we were traveling together." Geno says. Luigi is a little embarrassed, because he thinks that Mario might have told Geno about some of his secrets. "Waluigi was your name, correct?" He nods his head as Luigi's expression changes from one of worry, to one of disappointment. He droops his head down and looks at the ground with a feeling of unimportance in his heart. The doll's eyes go blank at the sight of Luigi's depression, and after a few blinks of the eyelids he has this to say. "I was just kidding Luigi, I know exactly who you are."

Luigi's depression is instantly cured as his face rockets back up into a straightforward position, a big ol' grin plastered across his face and his cheeks red with joy. "Really?" Luigi exclaims. "Yep, in fact, he mentio-" Geno is interrupted by Gemini, whose leg is now feeling as good as new. "I hate to interrupt the pleasantries comrades, but I would like to remind all but Geno that me and Alex are stuck with a time limit. We only got nine hours before this anti-solar ray formula wears off, and considering we have yet to find the temple, it would be best to continue onward as quickly as possible." Geno turns his attention towards Gemini and nods his head. "I did not know that there was a time limit for this little quest. Pardon me for getting caught up with the group's affairs, I'll just have to talk with them later..." The doll turns back around and starts walking. The rest of the heroes continue on their way, pacing through the desert to search for the Terra Cave. Meanwhile, with Joe Dark's "dead" body, one of his hands starts twitching ever so slightly, shifting a tiny bit of sand that surrounds his being...

Another hour passes as the heroes continue to trek through the infinite expanse filled with sand, the landscape occasionally being dotted by a rock or a cactus, but more often than not it remains barren. Geno remembers that he has forgotten to introduce himself to Alex. He turns his head to look at the boy, and is about to speak when he interrupts him. "It's ok Geno, you don't need to introduce yourself to me, I already knew about you." The doll turns his head back and continues looking onward. "That's interesting" He says. "How do you know about me when you've only been on this planet for not even a week. Did Mario talk about me at all?" Alex shakes his head in response. "It's kind of complicated. Let me just say right now that I came from the planet Earth." Geno closes his eyes and crosses his arms. "Ah yes, Earth. That would explain why you know about me...Yes, the Star Spirits have always talked about how some planets see Plit as a type of world known as a "Video Game World", and that people who see our world that way assume that we are imaginary beings..." He lets out a little chuckle while thinking about the ways that humans perceive the world he lives in.

As the doll continues pondering to himself, an oddly placed circular formation of rocks appears in front of our heroes, which is placed on the side of a hill of sand. In the center of this rock formation is a large black hole that appears to lead into a dark, damp cave. "A cave entrance on the side of a sandy hill..." Gemini tries to take a closer look at it from where they are currently standing, and sees the top of a ladder near the very edge of the entrance. "Bingo. That must be the entrance to the Terra Cave...Which means the guardian will appear as soon as we approach it." Geno opens his eyelids when he hears this and looks at Gemini, his eyes still crossed, but his mind filled with curiosity. "Come again? What is this guardian you speak of?" Mallow raises his hand up near his chin and points towards the direction of the cave. "Well, you see Geno, the guardians-" Before the cloud Prince can finish, a small tremor in the ground shakes the heroes up a bit, and the magnitude of this tremor steadily increases until it reaches the point of being a small earthquake. The group has a hard time keeping their balance, their bodies flailing back and forth in an attempt to steady themselves in the presence of this powerful force of nature. The sands in front of them start to shift violently, as a mound of it begins to build up, an action of which could be compared to the likes of one inflating a balloon underneath a blanket.

As the mound continues to get bigger, the earthquake itself begins to calm down, but not before Mallow and Alex lose their balance and fall flat on their faces into the sand below. Then the mound bursts open, grains of sand being launched in all directions, as a robotic creature appears from out of the surface. This creature has a rectangular silver body, with four copper tone legs extending out of the bottom of it's body. These legs are separated into two parts, both connected by a giant bundle of red and blue wires. The leg parts themselves are simple looking boxes that have no extra details added to them to make them look more noticeable. Attached to the sides of this robot are a few dull and drab looking ropes with medium sized drills attached to the end of each one. It has a black upside down crescent shaped eye with a bright red glowing pupil on the front, which stares down upon our heroes with a menacing gaze. Once it lands on the sand below, the heroes stare blankly at it. Considering the crummy looking design of this guardian, they don't feel threatened in the slightest. In fact, they get out of their battle positions and just stare at the guardian with a look of disappointment.

"THIS is our opponent? Very disappointing, a total anti-climax, especially after we just got done fighting Joe Dark..." Alex notes. "WE?" Gemini angrily responds, bluntly saying this because he was doing pretty much all the work during that battle until Geno showed up. The boy nervously responds back, saying "Well, to be honest, you looked like you had everything under control..." He then rubs the back of his head, his eyes closed to show that he is feeling a little bit sorry for not helping out. "Either way, we can take this guardian down easily. It's pretty much seven against one anyways, and we've fought things that were a lot more threatening than this pile of outdated junk." Suddenly, an all too familiar and somewhat grating voice echoes throughout the skies. "You should not be performing the action that is the process of numbering the amount of egging poultry just yet! Cue the melodies that signify the long awaited appearance of the character whose popularity has resulted in the executive action of two additional appearances in the games about red and green!"

(.com/watch?v=fc5PkBb7lzI) A strange tune starts to play throughout the skies, and the heroes look around for any signs of where it is coming from. Suddenly, from above appears the familiar green person known as Fawful. A small little man, his entire body is wrapped up in a somewhat tattered red cape, with two golden buttons holding a small golden rope in the front of it. His face currently has a wide open grin that stretches across pretty much his entire face, with a pair of swirly blue glasses covering his eyes. His entire being is suspended in the air by a small glass container with two gray and red striped rockets attached to it. His stubby little green feet land safely on top of the robot's head. "Fawful!" Mario and Luigi exclaim, putting their fists up and looking at him with anger in their eyes. Gemini can only express bewilderment at this occurrence. "Wait a second, Fawful? But didn't he die when the Dark Star was destroyed?" Fawful laughs. "In the name of a subsection of a website that describes the words spoken by a man who feels renewed after a near-death experience, I got better!"

The robot's glowing eye shifts upward, having detected motion on the top of it's head. "Threat to canopy detected, proceeding to remo-" Fawful gleefully interrupts the robot, two cut open wires flowing from underneath his cape and tapping the top of the robot, sending a powerful electric shock through it's metallic body. "ERROR, ERROR, ER...RO..." The robot instantly shuts down, it's glowing eye vanishing without a trace. The wires under Fawful's cape retract, leaving the crazy man to continue his laughing fit. "Hahahahaha! The robot is a simple fink-rat! But alas, considering the goals given to me by my Mistress who has tasted the lime flavored feeling of defeat, it will have to do. I have chortles!" Fawful flips his cape open, and with his stubby little hands he pulls out a small remote control and presses the red button that lays on top of it. The container on top of his head expands outward to become wider than his body, where it then falls down over him, encasing him in a protective barrier with a couple of control sticks in front of him. "Now for the finishing touch, a masterpiece on Fawful's canvas which is the bread that his mustard of doom shall be spread upon heavily!"

With another press of the button, a giant and diabolical replication of Fawful's face falls from the sky and by using two miniature rockets on the back it floats right in front of the robot's face, it's mechanical features including a creepy replica of Fawful's familiar evil grin and glasses. The mask magnetizes itself to the front of the robot's body, and the guardian itself stands on it's own four feet, staring down the then battle ready heroes. "Meet the device of musical production that will bring about the end that is most over the game, the Terrawful! Shiver before my fury as I stomp all over your faces that are overcome with the emotion that you'd expect to see on someone who has encountered the creatures of creepy and crawly!" With that, Fawful moves the control sticks around to make the robot move one step forward. "As awful as that robot looks, the person controlling it-" "We know about him Gemini, don't need to give us a warning." Mario interrupts as the Koopa pulls his trident out of his shell.

"Activating completely unnecessary but totally shining like the stars in the sky laser barrage system!" Fawful punches a button on the roof of his container, and the mechanical glasses on the mechanical face opens up to reveal two black lens with a small dark red dot in the center of it that is slowly getting brighter by the second. "Whoa now!" Gemini exclaims. From out of the center of the two eyes appears two photon laser beams, which the Koopa quickly reflects away by spinning his trident around in front of him. "SPINSPINSPINSPINSPIN!" Fawful exclaims, continuing to punch the button on the top of his container with a feeling of intense fury burning through his cold and maniacal little heart. The laser beams keep firing from the eyes of the face, and Gemini has to stand his ground and keep spinning his trident around to make sure that none of his partners get hit. "What are you guys waiting for? GO!" Gemini exclaims, motioning his head towards the Terrawful.

"Right" Geno nods his head. "You guys attempt to distract Fawful, and I'll try to cut the face off from the rest of the body. If I am correct, the Terrawful shouldn't be that much of a threat once the it is disabled." The rest of the heroes nod their heads, understanding Geno's plan perfectly. Alex flies up into the air and goes over Fawful's container, the crazy green man noticing this and deciding to use his own feet to move the control sticks around, causing the formerly limp drill arms to spring to life and attempt to thrust themselves at the boy's general direction. Some quick maneuvers through the air allow Alex to swiftly and gracefully dodge the drills aimed at him. Driad takes advantage of this distraction to lash his vines out towards the legs of the robot, attempting to grab them and pull on them, hopefully tripping the robot up in the process. Fawful notices this as well, and with his other hand, slams down onto a big green button that is labeled with the following words, "The spikes of prickly pain". When this button is activated, a multitude of miniature spikes appear around the legs of the robot, and thus when Driad touches the legs a sharp pain pierces his body, and makes him let go of the legs in an instant and retract his vines back into his body,. Gemini looks over at Driad while continuing to deflect the lasers.

"DRIAD! WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?" Gemini exclaims in panic. "There are spikes on the legs! I can't touch them!" Driad replies as he begins to suck the honey that is dripping out of the puncture wounds. "Well use your leaf blade then!" The Koopa can't anymore as he has to shift his body to the left as one laser manages to slip by his defense. "Alright, I'll try that..." The Crayzee Dayzee finishes sucking out the honey from his wounds and they instantly heal up, the holes being covered up by newborn fibers. Driad then shifts around the molecules in his arm so the vines that form his left hand shift into the shape of a sharp looking leaf. He raises this leaf blade up into the air and charges at the legs of the Terrawful. Fawful, as crazily prepared as he is, just presses another button next to the spike button to summon two flamethrowers from the bottom part of the mask, which point towards Driad's general direction. The flower warrior is unaware of their presence, so it's a complete and utter shock to him when his body spontaneously combusts. "HOLY!" Driad exclaims as he runs out from underneath the robot with his arms flailing about. He tosses himself onto the sand and rolls around to get the fire off of him. Though Driad succeeds in getting it off, his body has now become charred, and thus unfit for combat. He coughs up a small cloud of smoke from his mouth as he lays on his back.

"Driad!" Mallow exclaims, stopping the charge of one of his spells so he can rush by his friend's side and heal him. "Good response time Mallow! Hey, Alex!" Alex looks at Gemini as best as he can while still dodging the drills that are thrashing about in an attempt to hit him. "Yes?" The Koopa merely shakes his head upon looking at the boy and continues focusing on the laser barrage. "Never mind, just keep doing what you are doing." Alex shrugs and continues to do just that. Meanwhile, Mallow is lifting his arms up into the air to summon a smiling cloud over him with his staff. A little bit of rain comes down onto Driad's body, each drop bouncing off his body and falling down into the sand below, creating a miniature puddle for Driad to lay in and recover on. "Ok, that takes care of that...Now, time to-" Mallow turns around and is unable to finish his sentence, as the flamethrowers aim their sights at Mallow and open fire at him. Mallow lifts his arms up to defend himself, but the flamethrowers hit him dead on, creating a cloud of smoke from the impact. The smoke stays afloat in the air for a few seconds, without any possible signs of the cloud Prince being alive. Once the smoke does start to clear though, it is reveal that he endured the attack though his arms have now been singed. "That's odd, I thought I was going to die for a moment there..." He then notices Geno lowering his right arm back near the side of his body and realizes then that he survived because his friend quickly cast his Geno Boost spell on him, which amplified his defense to the point that he was able to survive the flames that had hit him.

"Thanks Geno!" Mallow exclaims. Though the doll doesn't give him a verbal response he holds a thumb up as he shuts his eyelids again to continue thinking of a battle plan. "Just continue the attack, I have an idea." He says. Gemini is starting to wear down from continuing to spin the trident around to deflect the lasers. His sprained leg is not helping the situation either. "Well, there is a bright side to all of this. At least with him focusing on firing the flamethrowers off at Mallow, there is no way that he will be able to use anymore-" As if God was listening in on this entire conversation and decided to punish Gemini for tempting fate, Fawful thrusts his head backwards, slamming directly onto a big black and yellow striped button that says, "Cliché'd Giant Laser". The eyes on Fawful's glorified face stops firing the eye lasers, and both of the lens turn a hazy shade of white with the glowing red dots becoming blotched black dots. The wide grinning mouth slowly splits at the center, both parts going up and down to reveal a giant gaping hole behind them pearly whites. Oh, and there is also a giant photon cannon behind the teeth that is slowly charging it's power to fire at Gemini, who has now finished spinning the trident around as he looks at the photon cannon with his once serious expression changing to that of a dumbfounded one. "You got to be kidding me…How did he summon that weapon from a 2-D-…You know what, forget it…" Gemini rubs his fingers against his face, cursing his luck in a sarcastic tone.

"FIRE THE CHORTLES CANNON!" Fawful exclaims. The "Chortles Cannon" as he calls it, is fired out of the photon in the form of high-density blue atomizing laser, which Geno and Gemini are quick to get out of the way of. The attack does; however, manage to cut through a large chunk of the desert that lies in front of him, swathing a path of destruction that leaves no traces of sand for miles on end. All that is left is the barren ground that lays below the layers of grains. Gemini starts sweating, since he almost got swept up in the force of the attack. Geno places his left hand over Gemini's right shoulder. The wood that makes up his hand feels cold to Gemini, but he knows the person touching him has a warm "soul". "Keep yourself together Gemini, I know things look grim, and you may not be feeling good after having already dealt with a battle just a while ago, but I need you ready to attack on my signal, got it?" Geno removes his hand from the Koopa's shoulder. The doll reminds Gemini of his Commander, as the two of them always keep a calm demeanor, even in the face of danger. Gemini gets up on his feet and picks his trident up from off the ground, as it was dislodged from his hand due to the shockwave from the "Chortles Cannon".

"So what is the plan?" He asks, now confident in their victory after having that brief pep talk with Geno. "The eyes seem to have been shut down. Using that 'Chortles Cannon' as he called it seems to have used up all of the power he had built up for the lasers. Now is the perfect time to use your electric powers to reverse the polarity on the magnets, thus cutting off Fawful's mask from the rest of the robot." "That sounds like a good plan" Gemini says. "But what about any other weapons Fawful might have?" "No problem." Geno directs his attention towards Mario and Luigi, who are currently doing a good job of distracting the flamethrowers while Mallow casts Thunderbolt on the drill arms. "Mario, Luigi! I need you to attack Fawful's container!" Mario and Luigi stop paying attention to the flamethrowers and once they hear Geno's comment, decide to launch an all too familiar attack against Fawful. Mario stands in front of Luigi, and the man in green runs towards his brother and jumps right above his head, allowing him to thrust his hands up so Luigi can jump off of them, giving him a needed height boost necessary for the next part of the attack. As the man in green flies into the air above Mario, Mario walks a few steps forward and jumps up into the air to grab onto the bottom of Luigi's feet when he reaches the point in the air. As the two heroes descend down towards Fawful's container, the crazy green man notices this and properly prepares a defense measure to stop their attack.

By pressing another yellow button in his container, a single spike appears at the top, protruding ever so sharply out of it. Fawful, assuming that the Mario Bros. will not be able to stomp him with their "Feet of great leathery pain", is quite surprised when the Mario Bros. attempt to do something a little different than he thought they would do. Both brothers start spinning around the air, building up centrifugal force around their body to increase the force of their attack. The force created by the velocity that they are going at creates a sort of drill shape around their bodies, the shape being made completely out of the air. The Mario Bros. smack down right on top of Fawful's little spike, the combined forces of the two brothers completely crushing the sharp object as they impact with the glass container. The two of them bounce off the container and rocket off it like it's made of rubber, and the both of them go plummeting into the sand below with their faces meeting the sandy plains with a nice hard impact. "FOOLISH PLUMBERS OF IRRITATING COLORS RED AND GREEN. FAWFUL USES PLEXIGLAS!"

This move of theirs though has distracted Fawful long enough for Gemini to charge up the right amount of electricity needed to reverse the polarity of the face's magnets. "Alright, here I go..." The Koopa jabs his electric charged fingertips out in front of his body, sending a small stream of electricity out that of which moves at such speeds that Fawful is only able to briefly notice it before it goes right through the mechanical face of Fawful. The crackling sound signals that the electricity has worked it's magic...Err, science on the magnetic forces that had kept it attached to the robot. The face simply falls off, landing on the sand below with a loud and thunderous thud, the metallic material making the sound echo throughout the area. The heroes plug their ears so the noise doesn't pain them. The constant vibrations created by the noise end up breaking the Plexiglas surrounding Fawful. "Oh..." The little man says in a deadpan tone. "NO MATTER, I STILL HAVE ONE TRICK UP MY (non-existent) SLEEVES!"

Fawful presses a button that has been (not surprisingly) wrapped around his left arm the entire time. The Terrawful's eight drills break apart, each becoming one part of a whole drill, the wires extending out in front of his body. The eight pieces of the drill connect together to form one drill that is the same size as the eight drills beforehand. However, to the shock of the rest of the heroes, the drill suddenly grows to a massive size, becoming just as big as the body of the robot itself. A bunch of drills also happen to grow from the main drill itself, each one a different size from the others. Fawful steers the robot around towards Gemini and Geno. The robot's clunky body manages to keep itself together despite the massive weight of the drill, and it begins ramming across the ground with the drill continuously spinning as it advances towards the two heroes. Fawful's glasses turn a bright orange color, and he shouts something unintelligible out of his mouth. **"****破れの品ｿを持つメガサイズよりも大きく武器をﾑﾊ****I I I"**

Geno will have none of that though, and the Star Warrior lifts one hand above his head and begins creating a miniature star. The star sparkles brightly, sending out waves of light that would blind pretty much everyone in the area if they got in close. As the star grows to be double the size of the doll's body, some excess energy floats around the star in the form of flotation rings, making the attack look more like an atom than an actual star. "Geno Bomb!" Geno exclaims before motioning his hand forward, which causes the atom shaped star to fire towards the charging Terrawful. The two powerful attacks collide dead on, creating a massive shockwave from the force of the impact that manages to send most of the heroes flying backwards. Alex gets flung out of the sky and ends up landing on the ground about half a mile away from the battle. Mallow, Mario, and Luigi get sent back a few feet, and Gemini is knocked onto his back. The Star Warrior stands his ground though, refusing to flinch in the face of Fawful's attack. As the two attacks continue to clash, a bright light starts to build up because of the sheer amount of energy radiating from them. With the light continuing to expand, it eventually engulfs both the Terrawful and the Geno Bomb. And it is still growing, covering up the heroes, the entrance to the Terra Cave, and then it stops growing, the dome of bright light being seen for miles…

_Next Time: Indiana Alex and the Kingdom of the Crystal Stone…Because making parodies of that movie is really original._


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23: Stones Never Turn Towards Midnight**

The clashing energies of the drill and the Geno Bomb continue to produce mass quantities of light throughout the desert area. As it engulfs the heroes, they cover their eyes with their arms to avoid being permanently blinded. Geno, lacking any real eyes to begin with, is able to continue watching the two attacks clash. It seems as though Fawful cannot keep his momentum going, as the Geno Bomb is slowly pushing him back across the sands. "I will not perform the action of reverse life!" He exclaims, pushing the controls sticks on his container as hard as he possibly can without breaking them away from the wires connecting him to the robot. Suddenly, the drill starts spinning around at a much faster rate than before. In fact, it's going so fast that now that the sand is being sucked into the drill itself and wrapping around the multiple drills that stick out of the main drill. The high speeds of these drills cause the sand to form into a series of miniature twisters. The increased speeds have also allowed Fawful to continue pushing against the Geno Bomb, this time without any signs of him stopping.

"Hmph...I guess I was expecting a bit too much when I thought that an attack of my own creation would be able to stop such a drill." The doll closes his eyelids and folds his right arm over to the left side of his body and clasps his hands onto the air. Some shining yellow energy spins around the gap between Geno's fingers, forming a disc that he is able to grasp in his hand, which has sharp edges that make it perfect for cutting down all kinds of objects. His target is the unguarded legs of the Terrawful. If he is able to cut down even ONE of them down, then the robot will be toppled over, causing the Geno Bomb to take Fawful out. Problem is, the sand tornadoes created by the rotating drills have successfully flung some sand into the doll's eyes. While bright lights don't effect him, even the tiniest grain of sand feels like sandpaper to him. Geno acts quickly so he can still have time to cover his eyes with his left arm and prevent himself from becoming blinded by anymore of the sand.

"Geno Whirl!" He exclaims with a feeling of vigor rushing through him. With a fling of the wrist the disc goes flying out of Geno's hands and sent flying towards the legs of the Terrawful. The doll then takes the arm he used to fling the disc and moves it to the front of his eyes as planned. The disc flies silently through the air, undetected by Fawful thanks to it blending in perfectly with the lights in the surrounding area. The little man assumes that he is getting closer to pushing the Geno Bomb out of the way, since the robot has now moved 10 feet forward since he increased the drill's speeds. "Fawful smells victory, and it smells like the homemade cooking of Fawful's mother's mustard of doom pies! The smell of which is tasty and not-sour!" Suddenly, the robot becomes lopsided as it starts to topple forward, leaving Fawful with a blank expression on his face. "What is this Fawful don't even." It turns out that the Geno Whirl managed to successfully cut the Terrawful's lower left leg off, leaving a bunch of exposed wires at the bottom of it. The robot itself is falling forward, without any possible way for it to protect itself from the Geno Bomb now.

"Fawful is not about to let Fawful's own life be taken, so Fawful shall run off with the stubs of his legs crossed between his waist! Hahahahahaha!" With his little laugh echoing through the ears of the heroes, Fawful's container shrinks back to the shape of his rocket helmet and tightly wraps itself around his head. This causes Fawful to squint his eyes in pain. "FAWFUL DOES NOT LIKE THE TIGHTNESS!" Once the rocket helmet has loosened itself up a bit, he quickly flies off into the depths of the light field, his next destination unknown. Back on the battlefield, the Geno Bomb manages to slip by the big drill as it falls forward into the ground, and completely phases through the mini drills that are attached to it, disintegrating them into nothing but atoms as it passes though. Once the attack goes past the drill, it rams itself right through the backside of the robot as it falls down face first into the ground, the drill still going strong. The back of the robot is exposed once it gets atomized, revealing absolutely nothing inside, a detail that won't be noticed by the heroes thanks to the fact that the robot's drill is piercing the ground below it's face and is quickly sinking into the ground...

Geno removes his arm from his face and notices that the robot and Fawful are both gone, he then snaps his fingers, and the still flying Geno Bomb freezes in place. "Hmm, there is still some excess light energy in the air...Better take care of it..." With another snap of his wooden fingers, all the light energy in the surrounding area flies into the Geno Bomb, the Bomb itself glowing brighter with each passing second. Soon the bomb is as bright as a dense neutron star, but then realizes that this needs to be disposed of quickly, otherwise the bright rays illuminating from the bomb will reach the outside of the desert, and a lot of people will either become blinded or their eyes might end up getting burned away into nothing more than ashes. So with another snaps of the fingers, the bomb shrinks to the size of a molecule and flies into Geno's palm, where he absorbs it into his body. "There, that ought to do it." He confidentially says, folding his arms into his chest and closing his eyelids.

Now that the light has faded completely, the heroes slowly remove their arms from the front of their faces and open their eyes slowly, welcoming the rays of the sun into their pupils, which shrink to fit the vision needed for such lights. They get up off the ground and look around to see just what had happened, only to find that Alex has gone missing and Geno is standing alone, unscathed and victorious. Gemini is the first to question just what went down. "Hey, Geno. What the heck did you do?" He asks. Being the closest to the Star Warrior, Gemini was able to hear him call out the name of attack and was able to put two and two together easily on what went down, but asked the question anyways so Geno would explain it to the rest of the group. "I simply cut off one of the Terrawful's legs, and the robot fell under its own weight and drilled into the ground. Apparently the thing was still running even though Fawful disconnected himself from it." By the time he has finished explaining things Alex has flown back and somehow managed to overhear this conversation. He lands on the ground and reaches into his back pants pocket.

"I guess you could say that the Terrawful..." Alex then pulls out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket that he had apparently been carrying around with him all this time and applies them directly in front of his eyes. He grins and looks towards the ground. "Was just plain AWFUL." The heroes all turn their attention towards Alex's after he stated his ridiculously lame pun with nothing more than utter disgust on their faces. The boy lifts his arms up and looks around for a sign that someone liked the joke. "Yeaaaaaaaah? No, nothing? Well on Earth, that joke was-" He is then swiftly judo chopped in the back of the head by Driad, whose body is no longer singed, with his green coloring returned completely. Alex falls face first into the sand, the impact with the ground knocking the sunglasses off of his face. "I get burned by flamethrowers and knocked out for five minutes and the moment I wake up a bright light almost blinded me, I was sitting in a puddle of water that wasn't there before, and to top it all off I had to hear Alex's horrible joke...I mean really now, not a lucky day for me…" Driad retracts his vine arm back into his body and closes his eyes while groaning out of disbelief.

"Hey! You finally woke up!" Mallow enthusiastically says. Driad sighs, shaking his head back and forth to remove some remaining drops of water from the petals around it. "Yeah... Sorry again for not being much use during that battle...It feels like every battle has been getting harder and more grueling with every new temple we go to...I mean, we would've been trapped in Blitzkreig's net forever had it not been for Gemini, and had Geno not shown up, we would've either died against Joe Dark or been outflanked by Fawful...I like being around you guys and all, but I don't want to die either..." After Alex gets up off the ground and grabs his sunglasses to pocket them, he turns around and looks at Driad. "Hey now, don't act like that. Ok, to be honest, perhaps it wasn't the best time for a joke..." The flower opens his eyelids and turns to look Alex in the eye, a smile on his face. "It's not a problem Alex...Sorry if I may have hurt you with that judo chop to the head." The boy knocks on the back of his head. "It's not a problem, we humans have pretty thick skulls, so it takes a lot more than a judo chop to hurt them. Plus, it's not like you were aiming to kill, you just wanted to hit me because you were in a bit of a sour mood and needed to take some of your problems out on me."

"...So Alex, what do you humans do when two of you get into a fight and end up resolving it later?" Driad asks with a curious look on his face. Alex rubs his chin with his right hand and thinks about this question for a bit. "Well, normally humans would hug each other if they are husband and wife, or shake hands if they are merely friends, but seeing as you have those thorns and all..." Driad lifts his vine hand up, and does the thing that he showed E. Gadd a few days earlier. This has the added benefit of removing the thorns from the vine. Alex moves his hand away from his chin and lets out a little smile as the Crayzee Dayzee reaches his hand out and the two of them shake ends, forgiving each other for their brief little spat just now. Once Driad moves his hand away from Alex's, the vine reverts back to normal and he nervously rubs the back of his head with his left hand, closing his eyes and letting out a little laugh. "It takes a lot of concentration to keep the thorns retracted into my body, but I feel better for doing so..." He blushes a bit, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Driad's eyes widen a bit in surprise, for his cheeks have never turned red before. What's more surprising to him is the fact that he doesn't know what kind of plant function would be able to produce this reddish effect in his cheeks. He moves his hand towards his cheek, and they feel warm to the touch. This feeling lasts but a few seconds, as they become their normal shade of yellow quickly.

"How odd..." Driad comments. "It's normal Driad." Alex's comment knocks his friend out of the curious state he was in, and he quickly snaps his focus back to Alex's face. "Normal?" He asks. "Yeah, you feel a sense of joy and embarrassment inside of you, and thus your body reacts appropriately by pumping more blood through your body and some of the excess blood goes into your cheeks to make them a redder color." The boy folds his arms into his chest and tilts his head, thinking about something wrong with his logic. "Then again, seeing as you are a plant and all, I don't see how that could possibly work for you...Meh, maybe you got some tomato genetics in you. Wait, that doesn't make any sense either…Perhaps-" At this point, Alex and Driad hear a familiar voice calling out to them. "DRIAD! ALEX! WE ONLY GOT 7 AND A HALF HOURS NOW, WE NEED TO GET MOVING!" Gemini exclaims. The boy turns his head around and finds the rest of the heroes climbing down the ladder in the entrance of the Terra Cave, with Gemini waving his hand out towards him. "Coming!" Alex says, cupping his hand around his mouth to amplify the sound of his voice. He turns back towards Driad, who is looking over at the cave entrance. "Well, better get going then Driad. Don't worry, I'm sure there is some explanation for your blushing." Alex then turns around and runs towards the cave entrance. The Crayzee Dayzee places his right hand onto his chest and he swears that he could feel a minuscule beating. Driad lowers his eyelids a bit and bites his lip. "Then what is it?" He asks himself, a feeling of worry coming over him. "COME ON DRIAD!" Gemini then exclaims. Driad jumps when he hears the Koopa again, seeing as he was completely focused on himself beforehand. He goes back to his normal happy demeanor and nervously nods his head. "I-I-I-I'm coming Gemini!" With that bit of stuttering, Driad runs towards the cave entrance and goes down the ladder that lies there. Since the rest of the heroes have now gone down, Gemini decides to jump off the entrance's edge instead of taking the ladder, making sure to take one last look at the surrounding desert area for any signs of possibly ANOTHER enemy attack.

Down at the very bottom of the ladder, Mario and Luigi are currently looking around the dark and damp cavern for any signs on where to go next. Mallow and Geno end up arriving at the bottom a few seconds later, and Gemini lands on the ground feet first after jumping off the edge. He has to bend his knees when he makes contact with the ground, and grasps his left knee with the appropriate hand. Lifting his head up to check the surroundings, his reaction to the darkness is the same as Mario and Luigi's, with a look of confusion stuck across his face. He stands up on both of his legs and looks around for any possible signs of a torch stick, a hidden button, SOMETHING that might turn some lights on in this cavern. At this point, Alex and Driad reach the bottom of the ladder, noticing that Gemini got down before them. "You jumped?" Gemini waves his hand around, not really caring about that detail at this time, so he decides to make the answer as simple as possible. "I'm used to it, being a spy and all. Now, how are we going to get some light in this cave?"

Driad snaps his grassy fingers, an idea building up in his head. "I got it!" He then opens his mouth up wide, and reaches into it with his vine hands. The heroes look at each other in confusion, wondering just what their friend is trying to pull out of his esophagus. After a few seconds of searching, Driad pulls out a cone shaped piece of wood from his mouth, gripping it in his hands like a club. Amazingly, despite coming from his mouth, there is absolutely no saliva on it. "Mario can set this on fire and we can use it as a torch to light the way!" Driad happily hands the stick over to the plumber's open hands, and he takes it from him while still expressing confusion about how the flower was able to do that. "Wait a minute, how did you do that?" He asks. "I am able to produce sticks in my stomach, it helps with the digestion of any food I eat." The heroes blankly stare at Driad. "Well, I guess it does feel like I just pulled this particular power out of thin air without any previous hints that I could do this before, but let us be honest here, I'm able to create most nature based things at will, so wood is child's play for me. Not only that, but I haven't really gotten a chance to eat, so the question has never come up about what is in my stomach." The Crayzee Dayzee sighs and walks forward a bit, kicking a rock that had been lying on the ground for some time now. Mario just shrugs at his friend's rather forced comment, and proceeds to create a fireball in the palm of his free hand to use in lighting the end of the massive stick. As the flames erupt from the end, a crackling sound being made as the fire slowly begins to burn the bark on the stick. The light from the fire is bright enough to allow the heroes to see their surroundings. The walls of this cavern are both rocky and spiked, the color of them a dark brown. Water is dripping from the ceiling above, but the drops are so small that they are no threat to the torch.

"Ok, shall we continue?" Mario asks, looking around as the group nods favorably to his question. "Okiee a-dokiee." And thus they turn around and head deeper into the caverns. Geno currently has his arms folded near his chest, thinking about what Driad just said. "The ability to create objects of nature...The name Driad...Could he possibly be-" His train of thought is interrupted when he hears Mallow calling out to him. "Geno! You coming or not?" The doll turns his head around and looks at the Nimbusian, who is waving at him from a few feet away as the light from the torch starts to fade away and the rest of the group is going deeper into the caverns. "Be right there!" Geno says, turning his entire body around to match the direction that his head was looking at, then running forward to catch up with the rest of the group after berating himself for his moment of negligence. Upon continuing their trek through the caverns, a few screeching noises can be heard coming from deeper in the cavern. "Bats?" Alex says. "Possibly, the screech that is echoing through the cavern sounds exactly like the noise a bat makes." Gemini responds, turning his head to look at the boy while saying this. He then flips his wrist around, thinking of another possibility. "Of course, seeing as this is one of the temples, the noises might have something to do with the traps set to stop people from getting the stone."

Eventually, the heroes see the luminous flames of some torches up ahead, and continue walking until they end up in a circular citadel-like room. In front of our heroes lies four doors, one of which is sealed off by a rainbow colored magic barrier, with a few silver sparkles shining around it. The caverns are held up by seven perfectly carved out pillars, whose appearance looks as smooth and sleek as a layer of sheet metal. By taking a quick look at the ground, Gemini notices the runic symbols placed below. There are eight holes with a stone in pretty much each and every one of them, each one of them representing a different element. There are stones for fire, ice, earth, water, wind, grass, and lightning laid around in a circle, with lines carved into the ground that lead the colored lights radiating from the stones towards a hole in the center, which mysteriously doesn't have a stone placed inside of it. Easily putting two and two together, the heroes realize that the three open doorways probably lead to whatever the heck it is they need to put into the center hole.

"Alright" Mario says. "We are going to have to split up for a bit, to cover alot more ground. So I think the teams should be split like this." Mario puts his torch down onto the ground and points his left hand at the door that lies to the right of him. "Me and Luigi will take that door." Mario moves his hand to point to the door to the left of the sealed off one. "Mallow, Driad, and Geno shall take that door. And of course, this leaves Gemini and Alex to take the last door." He then picks his torch back up off the ground. "Oh, and it would probably be a good idea for each team to grab one of the torches hanging on the walls, just to make it easier to see in the dark. Any objections?" The heroes shake their heads, then both Alex and Mallow each grab a torch from off the wall, and their groups head off down their respective doorways with each one of them being extra cautious due to the screeching noises from earlier.

**~The Mario Bros.'s Pathway~**

Mario and Luigi starts trekking down the caverns of this pathway, the walls that lay beside them being both gray and jagged looking. Luigi is seen keeping his cool, whistling the familiar World 1-1 tune from Super Mario Bros., the sound of it echoing off the walls in the cave. Mario has noticed that his brother has been acting a lot braver than usual lately, because before this adventure the situations they've encountered so far would've driven Luigi to tears by fear alone, yet he currently stands in this damp and dark cave, whistling a peaceful tune and looking absolutely unfazed by the events that have transpired so far. The plumber stops moving, and the man in green stops whistling his tune, wondering why his brother has stopped. "Mario, what is wrong?" He asks, lowering his eye lids a bit and making an "O" shape with his mouth. Mario turns around and looks at Luigi, a bit of confusion spread across his face. "Luigi, you are usually a bit of a coward in these situations. What happened to make you so brave?" The brother bites his lower lip when Mario makes this comment, shifting his eyes back and forth nervously. Mario grows a little angry at the fact that Luigi isn't answering his question, tapping his foot on the ground and staring at his brother with one eyebrow raised.

"Well Mario, it kind of goes like this...I've honestly been scared this entire time..." Luigi rubs the back of his head and lets out and embarrassed chuckle. "Really?" Mario questions, both of his eyebrows now raised. "You have been looking pretty brave to me." "Nope, all just an act Mario...I'm sorry for doing it, but I had a good reason for it..." The plumber lowers his eyebrows and decides to listen to what Luigi has to say about the whole thing. "Go on..." He says. "Well you see...It involves...Daisy..." Mario's eyes widen and a bit and smile comes across his face. "Oh yeah, you two are dating or something, right?" He says. Luigi's cheeks become a light shade of red. "Y-y-yes..." He nervously responds. "Continue." Mario responds. "Well anyways, I realized some time ago that I am...Well, a bit of a spineless wimp..." Luigi sighs. "Always the second fiddle to you, I kept hiding in your shadow as we went off to save Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom many, MANY times before, and because I was unwilling to stand up for myself you are recognized more often as the hero..."

"Then I also realized that I freeze up when even the smallest of creatures comes near me...Daisy might be put in danger someday, and if I'm going to continue dating her, I need to become strong hearted...So I decided that I would keep my fear locked away inside of me and start becoming brave...Just like you Mario." Luigi kicks his foot towards the air, making a cloud of dirt fly upwards off the ground. "So you did this out of love for Daisy?" Mario responds. "Not only that..." His brother folds his arms behind his back and looks towards the ground. "I also did it...Because I kind of envy you bro..." Mario lowers his arms down near his hips, shocked by what Luigi just said. "That's interesting to hear..." Mario then thinks to himself. "Now that I think about it...Whenever I went to new Kingdoms with Luigi, people did not recognize him like they did me...Have I really been ignorant to this fact for so long?" He then remembers back to an incident from a while ago, where Luigi was turned into a trophy by someone whose name he couldn't remember the name for, and Mario didn't even notice him at all, instead paying more attention to Peach than his own brother. "My goodness..."

Luigi lifts his head up. "Well, sorry for bothering you with my issues...I'll go back to being my cowardly old self now..." He is about to start walking off, when his brother puts his free hand on the man in green's right shoulder. "Luigi, hold on for a minute." Mario says, a heartfelt tone coming from his voice. "I may seem like an invincible hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, but there are some problems even I can't solve by myself...You may not realize it, but you are just as important to this world as I am. Remember the Waffle Kingdom?" Luigi hangs his head in shame. "How could I forget..." Mario shakes his head. "There is nothing to be ashamed about Luigi. The people still remember you as their hero, and the story of your adventure was talked about in Rogueport more than my quest there. They even made a book about those adventures." The man in green swiftly lifts his head up. "Bro..." "And don't forget that fan club of yours too." Mario lets out a light cough. "Not only that, but you have shown in the last few days that you are perfectly capable of being as brave and strong as me. It may have been an act to you, but to me your body was radiating with a new found sense of strength and you showed a heart that will never give in, not even to the scariest of beasts..." Mario retracts his hand from Luigi's shoulders. "Point is Luigi, I am proud to call you my brother, and I wouldn't be the great hero I am now without people like you supporting me through thick and thin." Halfway through his brother's speech, Luigi's eyes start filling up with tears, and he lets out a little sniffle from his nose with a feeling of joy overcoming him due to what his brother just said. The man in green extends his arms out and gives his bro a nice big hug.

"It's ok Luigi..." Mario says with a calm tone in his voice. "Bro...Sniff...Thank you for saying that to me...Sniff..." Luigi's eyes start producing plenty of tears at this point, all of which trickle down his cheeks and land on the shoulder of Mario's shirt. Luigi backs away from his bro and rubs the tears from his eyes, sniffing some more to prevent any loose mucus from dripping out of his nostrils. "Are you all better now?" Mario asks. "Yes..." The man in green replies. "Ok. Then let us continue onward to finding the object we need." "I don't think that we need to go much farther bro." Luigi replies. "Oh?" Mario inquires. Luigi points to behind his brother, and he turns around to look at what he is pointing at. Floating in front of them in plain sight is one third of a silver and black stone, just floating in the air defended by absolutely nothing. "Huh...That was easy...Guess this must be the simplest pathway..." Mario shrugs, not really seeing the need to complain about how simple this easy, knowing from earlier experiences that tempting fate is not a good idea. He then walks over to the stone fragment and picks it up with his free hand, stuffing it into his overall's pocket for later use. "Ok, let us head back now..." Mario says. "I hope the others are doing fine..." Luigi responds.

**~Mallow, Geno and Driad's Path~**

The three short little heroes have been trekking down the pathway for the last five minutes. Driad is busy pulling out a large arrow that has been lodged into his right shoulder. "Man, dodging all of those arrows was such a pain..." He says, ripping it out of his shoulder and tossing it against the smooth bronze colored cave walls, making a clinking noise as the metallic part of the arrow is flung against it. Driad twists his right arm around, grabbing onto his shoulder with his left hand and waiting for the wound to be patched up via grass growing over it. "Luckily, those arrows are the least of our concerns..." Geno says. Mallow waves the torch around, Geno and Driad both looking at it nervously since the flames are basically the living equivalent of the Underwhere for the two of them. Doesn't help that the Crayzee Dayzee almost burned to death just a while ago. Mallow turns around and looks at the two of them, both of their eyes bulging out of their sockets. Considering how composed Geno usually is, seeing him look a little nervous came as quite a shock for the cloud Prince. "Oh? What should we be concerned about then?" The doll stops being nervous and holds his fist to his mouth, closing his eyes and letting out a little cough. "Mallow, perhaps it would be easier if I created a source of light...Then my physical body wouldn't be under the risk of getting turned into...Well, ashes."

"I'm not clumsy Geno, you don't have to worry about me losing the torch, nor do you have to worry about it touching you." Mallow says, a bit saddened by the fact that Geno thinks that he is a clumsy person. The star warrior lowers his head and folds his arms into his chest again. "It's not that I'm worried about..." "I am worried about us running into anymore traps like the arrow shooters from before, and you possibly losing your grip OR the trap hits your arm, causing the torch to be dislodged from it, and it ends up hitting either me or Driad." "Well, we shouldn't have to worry about running into any more traps." Mallow replies. "Oh? How come?" Geno asks. The Nimbusian turns around and points to a silver and black shining stone part that looks similar to the one Mario and Luigi had picked up in the other cave. Of course, they don't know of this fact, but I as the narrator just had to point out that minuscule little detail to you viewers.

"How odd, this temple doesn't have much to go for as far as defense systems go it seems...What with that arrow trap being the only thing standing between us and this stone fragment." Geno says. "Be cautious as you go to grab it Mallow." Mallow nods his head and turns the rest of his body around, giving the area surrounding the stone a cautious glare, going on it twice to make certain that there are no traps. As Driad looks on, the doll says something to him. "Driad." The Crayzee Dayzee's eyelids blink and he turns his head to stare at Geno, who is continuing to look at Mallow as he grabs the stone. "When we are done with this temple, I would like to talk to you at the Shooting Star Summit." He says in a quiet tone. "Why later?" Driad inquires, tilting his flowery head in curiosity. "Because what I say does not need to be heard by Mallow, or any of the others for that matter." The flower merely shrugs and turns his head around to look back at Mallow, who has the stone part grasped in his free hand with no traps being set off once he does this. "Alright!" Mallow exclaims triumphantly, raising the arm with the stone fragment in it up into the air, waving it back and forth to show Geno and Driad that he got it without any problems. "Now let us head back to the center. Hopefully the others have had it as easy as we have." He then says.

**~Alex and Gemini's Path~**

Where Alex and Gemini are currently at, there is nothing but pitch black darkness surrounding them. They have apparently lost their torch, and though it cannot be seen the sounds of metals colliding with each other echoes along the walls of the cavern. The same screeching noise that they had heard earlier is also echoing through the caves. Oddly enough, it also sounds like some boulders are being cracked or something, for the sounds of multiple rocks landing on the ground can be heard as well...Needless to say, without any way of knowing what is going on here, it is time to see the results of the heroes' split up a while later...

**~Fragment Ruins, twenty minutes later~**

The Mario Bros. and the group with Mallow, Driad and Geno in it have successfully arrived back at the center of the ruins without any difficulties what so ever. However, they have been waiting for Alex and Gemini for exactly thirteen minutes now, and are becoming increasingly worried. "I don't get it...The caverns we went down were so...Simple." Driad folds his arms and grasps his chin with one hand. "How could it be taking them this long?" As if on cue, Gemini and Alex walk into the room looking somewhat beaten, with Alex grasping the last stone fragment in his battered and bruised left hand. Gemini's right hand looks a bit limp as it's just lying next to his hip completely motionless. "Boy I can't believe you did that Gemini, using electricity as a shield in the way that you did." The boy says, looking directly at Gemini while they walk into the room. "As good as that was, I'm more surprised by the fact that you punched out not just one, but TWO boulders." Alex grins with joy. "Oh you are being too modest, I mean you were the one who broke your left hand just to stop the gears that were chasing after us. Besides, I only punched the boulders because you weakened them for me."

As the two heroes continue talking about what seemed to be an exciting adventure, the rest of the heroes just stare at each other with puzzled looks on their faces, then tilt their heads and sigh at the fact that those two look unfazed, and all of them somewhat jealous of the fact that their route was a lot more exciting than the ones they took. Gemini and Alex finally look at the others, the boy laughing at the fun the two of them had on that path. "So, how did everyone else do?" He asks. Mario and Mallow hold out their respective stone fragments, which glimmer brightly with some silver sparkles surrounding them. "Wait, what happened to your torch?" The plumber asks after looking up and noticing that neither one of them are holding on to their torch anymore. Alex's joyous chuckle changes to a nervous giggle when he hears this question, and he rubs the back of his head a bit. "Well...We...You kind of had to have been there to understand just what kind of crazy things were in that path..."

Mario raises an eyebrow, but decides not to push this matter any further, shaking his head and walking over to the center of the room where the glowing element symbols are placed. "Shall we put out fragments in?" He asks. Alex and Mallow nod their heads, and walk towards the center of the room, each one of them placing a fragment of the stone into the center hole below. When all the fragments are placed together to form a complete stone, it is revealed that the black lines form the Kanji for "Heaven". A massive burst of light shines from the center stone while silver rays of energy push back the rainbow colored lights that were radiating from the other seven stones. The bright silver light eventually eclipses the light radiating from the stones, surrounding all seven stones in a field of silver light. As each stone gets eclipsed, the color fades away from the barrier one at a time. Eventually the red color fades away, leaving just the silver sparkles to float around the doorway.

Then, the seven stones start cracking, as the silver light begins to crush them one at a time. The stones cannot keep up with the pressure that the energy is applying on them, and each stone shatters into nothing more than specks of colored dust that are barely visible through the radiating lights that cover them. The lights then retract back into the main silver stone, as the glow from the stones themselves fade away, leaving the room almost completely dark with only the slowly dimming light coming out of the torches keeping the area lit up. "Huh...I wonder if what that 'Light Stone' did meant anything..." Alex says. "Doubt it has any symbolic meaning, what matters is that we can move on now." Gemini says, both upset that Alex is looking too deeply into irrelevant things, and getting a bit impatient due to the fact that they only have five hours until the anti-sun barrier wears off so they need to get moving quickly.

"Fine, fine. I suppose you are right Gemini." Alex stands up after kneeling down to examine the stone some more. "Kanji for Heaven, huh?" He thinks to himself, rubbing his chin in intrigue. "Interesting..." After pondering a possible meaning in the stones destruction by the hands of the light stone, he follows the heroes through the door with the silver sparkles floating around them. A couple sparkles land gently on the part of Driad's face where his nose would be, causing him to let out a tiny sneeze, which in turn makes a little wad of pollen fall out of his face. "Gesundheit." Mario responds. "What does that term mean?" Driad questions, tilting his head and squinting his eyes in curiosity. "Simply put, it's a courteous comment one makes to another person when they sneeze. It has no real meaning besides being used to feel sorry for someone when they sneeze." Mario wags his left pointer finger around in the air, so focused on telling Driad about the definition of that word that he is no longer paying attention to his feet, so what is about to happen will leave him all the more surprised...

A quiet cracking sound can be heard coming from the ground below, which the plumber then manages to hear. He freezes in place and holds his arms out, the rest of the heroes following suite by freezing in place. "What is it bro?" Luigi asks. "That cracking noise, did you hear that?" Maio replies while nervously moving his head back and forth, looking for any possible traps or signs of any enemy attack. "Cracking noise? Come to think about it, something about this room feels uneasy..." Gemini says, kneeling onto the ground and bending his head over to listen in on the ground. The cracking noise becomes louder once the Koopa bends down, and a quick examination of the ground by Driad shows a few cracks growing around them. "Guys...There are cracks in the ground..." He quietly says. Gemini lifts his head up, and his eyes widen out of fear, for he has realized what all of this means. "Cracking noise? The ground is breaking up? Everyone, don't move, otherwise the floor will-" Gemini is too little too late to get the words out of his mouth, for the ground shatters under them in an instant, the rocks giving way due to their combined weight pushing the floor down towards the air socket below. As it all crumbles away, the heroes try desperately to get back to solid land, reaching their hands out in a futile attempt to grab onto solid ground. Alex quickly reacts by floating in the air with his flight powers, but is unable to grab onto anyone in time as they start hurtling down into the dark depths of the planet below. "NOOO!" Alex exclaims, desperation coming over him after failing to grab onto anyone's hand. But Alex wasn't ready to give up hope yet and lifted his fist up near his chest, a determined smirk painted on his lips, and with a quick blink of the eye Alex turned his body down towards the chasm below and jettisoned after our heroes. He did not know how he was going to save them, but he didn't care. He had to try his hardest to save them, or they were all going to be killed once they impacted with the ground below. That is, assuming that there is any ground at all...

_Next Time: Robotics of the Earth_


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24: Techno Earth**

The heroes are falling down the a mighty abyss, their bodies steadily coming closer to the ground with the air pressing against their bodies as they plummet. Mairo and Luigi are holding on to their hats with one hand to prevent them from flying off the top of their heads. Gemini is staring at the black chasm that lies below him, unable to keep his attention focused for long due to the air blowing against his eyes and forcing him to blink constantly. He is trying to think of a way to save everyone, and he bites down on the lower part of his lip while feeling nervous about the possibility of him having to use something he had forbade himself from using so far. "Damn!" He thinks to himself in agony. "So far I was able to avoid using it, but I don't want to die now either!" Gemini forces his eyes open, staring madly at the black abyss again, not letting the eyelids be closed due to the pressure of the wind. "Still, even if I did use it, there are certain circumstances that would probably prevent me from getting everyone...And I only have two arms, at the most I could probably save only two people...DAMN IT ALL!"

Out of all the heroes, Geno is currently the most composed, his folded arms and closed eyes showing absolute faith that they will survive this predicament. "If it is destiny that we shall fall, then I will accept my fate with open arms..." He says to himself, flipping his head around to see Alex flying towards them. A smile crosses his formally expressionless face. "But as long as that boy keeps a determined focus towards the goal of reincarnating the Element Overlord, these arms shall stay crossed to my chest in the face of death." With that, the doll looks back at the abyss. The boy reaches his hand out towards Mario, his eyelids wide open due to the circumstances involved with this rescue pushing him to his limits. His body is procreating tons of sweat, which barely last a second on his skin before the drops go flying upward due to the speeds of he is flying at.

"Mario! Grab a hold of my hand!" He exclaims, his voice displaying a sense of great urgency, even though Mario is perfectly aware of the situation they are in. He somehow turns his body around so he is falling back first towards the ground, with his hand still keeping his signature red hat on his head. "What about the others?" The plumber inquires. "I…I don't know! I honestly didn't think I would be able to catch up to you Mario, let alone everyone else!" The boy tearfully replies, turning his face away slightly to avoid looking upon his hero. The rest of the group minus Geno turn their heads around and look at Alex when they hear what he had said, their eyes showing the same amount of as Mario's currently are. "WHAT?" They all exclaim. The doll tightly closes his eyelids and murmurs the following to himself. "Come on…Think…" Alex shifts his head to the left in shame, realizing that he can't possibly hope to save all of them. The best he can do is look away and not see the fate that befalls them. Mario takes notice to this action, and quickly takes his right hand and puts them into his overall's pocket. From this pocket, Mario pulls out the Grass Stone. "Alex, here. Take this." Mario says, extending his hand out towards Alex.

The boy turns his head, and is surprised to see Mario wanting to give him the stone. Alex's lips take the shape of a frown, as it seems that Mario has just plain given up at this point. "Mario, don't give up yet...Maybe a miracle will come to save you guys still..." Though his voice sounds hopeful, a hint of sadness could be heard in his tone. "Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. If we fall though we can't take the risk of Cackletta ambushing you and taking the stones. I want you to have them and return to Earth, making sure that E. Gadd destroys the Stargadd in the process." Mario nudges his hand forward, prompting Alex to take the stone in his hand. Reluctantly, the boy reaches his hand out and takes the stone from Mario's grasp, motioning his hand towards his own pants pocket and placing the stone in there. The plumber then reaches back into his pocket and takes out the Lightning Stone, Water Stone, and finally the Wind Stone in that order. Alex takes the first two stones and places them into his pocket, but tightly clenches the Wind Stone in the palm of his hand. With his other hand, Alex tries to make one last attempt to grab a hold of Mario, but it seems that the heroes are falling at a much faster rate than before.

The plumber notices this once it becomes clear that Alex is moving away from him. Letting out a big sigh of relief for the fact that he will at least be remembered as a brave hero, and that his life has been both fulfilling and joyful, Mario uses his hand to lift his hat off of his head and nods at Alex. "Thank you so a-much for playing my a-games." He says to the boy, a single tear dripping out of his left eye. Mario sounds heartbroken as he says those words. Alex is about to cry as well, but at the same time, he refuses to let everyone die like this. "No! I won't accept this outcome!" He clenches the Wind Stone even harder than before, and grits his teeth with a burning look of sheer determination in his eyes. He thrusts the hand with the Wind Stone in it outwards, pointing towards the dark abyss that lies below him. "If you can hear me guardian of the Wind, I need you to grant my request on this day! I don't care if I'm not an overlord yet, your master, or anything more than a normal human, but I beg of you to do anything in your power to help save my friends!" The Wind Stone starts glowing with an absolutely bright gray light, which reflects of the moisture on the walls of the pit and casts their rays upon the eternal abyss.

Despite the looks of despair on most of their faces just a moment ago, the heroes minds are now barely about to comprehend the fact that one of the element stones responded so easily to Alex's commands. They now feel a lot more hopeful about their situation, while Geno just nods his head and gets a smile on his face. "There we go..." He says to himself, proud of the fact that Alex still refused to give up. "Alright! Now then, conjure up a cloud that will be able to catch everyone in the middle of your fluffy expanse and deliver us safely to the bottom of this abyss!" At the boy's request, some bundles of fluffy white material appears below where everyone else is falling, and they all combine to form a gigantic cloud. Geno flips his body around so his feet are sticking out towards the ground, and he lands calmly on the cloud with his blue cape fluttering as he floats down. Despite the fact that it should be impossible for a cloud to take on a solid shape like this, the doll is able to stand his ground on it, with no signs of it breaking apart from underneath him.

The rest of the heroes join Geno on the cloud by falling onto it face first, each of them letting out a moan of pain as they impact with it. Save for Mallow, who is accustomed to such materials, considering his heritage. Mario ends up falling onto the cloud back first, while Alex lifts his free hand up near his chest and clenches his fist, feeling victorious over the fact that his plan worked, and relieved over the fact that his friends have survived. After retracting his arm back into his body, Alex tucks the Wind Stone away safely into his pants pocket and then flies down to land gently on the cloud feet first. Gemini places his hands against the surface of the cloud, feeling the soft texture of it in his palms, then he opens his eyes to look in disbelief at the fact that he is literally on a solidified cloud. Taking a few blinks to ensure that he hasn't died and gone on to heaven, the Koopa realizes that the cloud is real, and that he is miraculously alive.

Getting up on his own two feet, Gemini looks around and sees that everyone else has made it alive, then he looks at Alex, with his mind still shattered by the fact that the Wind Stone responded to his words. "Alex, you better explain just how you were able to do that right now! You aren't the Elemental Overlord yet, and the stones were basically put on sleep mode after we defeated their guardians just so they could recuperate. There should've been no way that could have worked." At this point, a familiar voice echoes throughout the pit. "Huh? I have been awoken prematurely? Interesting...So you guys managed to get the Lightning Stone..." The heroes stop what they are doing and look around to see where that voice is coming from. "I don't have long to talk, so let me quickly explain what went down, since you guys seem to be bewildered by these events. Simply put, while we inner guardians must rest for a long time before the stones can be used again, the process of restoration for us can be achieved earlier. The deciding factor of this process is reliant on just how many element stones are within a one mile radius of each other. The process of restoration normally takes one year if a stone is by itself, six months if there are two stones, one month with three stones, two days with four stones, one day with five stones, and four hours with six stones."

"Wait, what happens when one collects all seven stones?" Alex asks, feeling silly due to the fact that he is talking to a spirit. "I do not know. In the period of two-thousand years since we guardians were created, we have yet to come in contact with our brother that resides in the Fire Stone. I can assume that people who have gathered the stones end up either dying by the hands of the temple's traps, or are unable to defeat him. The second seems more likely, as most of the traps in these temples aren't exactly well built, by my own admission. Not only that, but the guardian of the Fire Stone is the strongest of us all." Geno swiftly finds a contradiction in this person's sentence and decides to question this matter. "Hang on a second. You said you haven't seen the guardian of the Fire Stone, yet you know that he is the strongest, how come?" He asks, talking with a sense of authority and wondering just how this voice shall respond.

"Hmmm...I see your point there. Granted, I really didn't word my sentence properly to explain that situation. Simply put, the Element Overlord created all seven guardians at the same time, save for me as I was already alive at the time of his final journey, and in the days of old he used some of the kingdoms' ruins as holding places for the stones. Before we were each placed into the temples we had traveled together with the Overlord and a robed companion of his and during that time we had a few skirmishes to find out just how strong each of us truly were, but we eventually decided on the fact that our brother of fire was the strongest." "Wait, the Overlord did not create the temples themselves, but simply used the ruins of temples old? And who was this robed person he traveled with?" Mallow then asks. "Ah, well you see, the thing is, the Overlord-" The voice that was looming in the air is suddenly and silently cut off, his talk having wasted all of the energy in the Wind Stone and the other stones as well, as he ended up having to draw extra power from them in order to keep talking as long as he did.

"I guess whoever was talking just now ran out of energy..." Alex says dis-heartedly. "Considering the evidence, it was probably Fujin talking to us." Driad replies. "Yeah..." Alex takes the Wind Stone from out of his pocket and takes a nice long look at it, shutting his eyelids ever so slightly while thinking about the fact that the guardians have been trapped in these stones for two-thousand years, and those who aren't robots have been unable to do anything besides exist and rest and even them getting released is a bad thing, for their dedication to duty forces them to become creatures whose only purpose is to fight and attempt to kill anyone who tries to take the stones for themselves. The more Alex thinks about it, the more it seems like the Element Overlord may not be as much of a messiah as the legends listed him to be, despite what Fujin had mentioned after their battle with him. "If I end up becoming the new Overlord, I promise you guys will be free..." He whispers to himself. "I won't let you suffer in these stones for much longer...You will have to forgive me though, as I still have to defeat three of your brethren to make this a possibility."

With that said, Alex tucks the stone away into his pants pocket, deciding that it would be best to hold on to the stones for the time being. The cloud that the heroes have been standing on has been floating down the abyss at a slow pace for the past few minutes. At the point in time where Alex has tucked the Wind Stone away into his pockets though, the cloud has reached the very bottom of the abyss, landing softly on the ground and then disappearing without a trace. The heroes look around for any signs of a way out, but find absolutely nothing but an extension of the caverns that acts as a passage to the next room. "I guess we are stuck down here for the time being..." Gemini notes, folding his arms and tapping his foot on the ground, deeply upset about the current situation. "So is the case…It would be best for us to just continue onwards and hope that and exit will reveal themselves to us." Geno says, focusing his attention on the passageway in front of him.

"Very well." The Koopa then moves his arms away from his chest and positions them beside his body, ready to continue onward. "I guess I should just be thankful that I'm still alive, and leave the matter at that." Mallow walks over to Gemini and pats him on his left shoulder quickly before walking towards the passage, saying the following as he passes by, "Good man." With that, the heroes continue down the passageway, which unlike the previous ones in this cave, is nicely lit up by a few well placed torches on the walls, making it easier for them to navigate their way through the tunnel made out of bedrock and brimstone. Eventually, they exit the tunnel, and find themselves in a massive, wide open room. The walls are made out of marble tiles, and a few giant torches near the ceiling keeping the room alit. At the very center of the room is an altar made out of mass quantities of amber, with a round stone painted multiple shades of brown lying in the center of the bowl. Two concrete pillars lie off to the side of the altar. In general, this room seems to be a showcase for the various different types of earth based materials, and even the ground is paved with rocks of the Sedimentary, Igneous, and Mineral families.

"Ah, so there was a point to the floor collapsing. It was so we could reach the stone..." Mallow says, nervously chuckling to himself. "Still, you think they could've put in some sort of...I don't know, some stairs perhaps? Then we wouldn't have come under the threat of death..." He then rubs the back of his fluffy cloud head, a single "sweat" drop appearing at the top of his forehead and dripping down his body. Alex starts to walk over to the altar, determined to defeat the guardian quickly. "Alright, here we-" Alex stops when he sees a tiny chunk of marble drop down in front of his face. "Huh?" He curiously says, bending down to take a look at the chunk. "This is..." The boy picks the chunk up and examines it closely, then looks up to see a crack forming at the very top of the ceiling, and it is growing at a rapid pace. "Shoot!" Alex exclaims, tossing the chunk or marble off to the side and back flipping away from where he was standing, landing beside the rest of the heroes, who are now staring up at the growing crack on the ceiling. Gemini already has taken his trident out of his shell, ready for what is to come. All of them but Geno are wondering just what is coming, but the Star Warrior knows just exactly WHAT is piercing through the ceiling.

Indeed, as the ceiling is chipped away by a sharp object, the marble panels surrounding the cracks are broken off and they all fall towards the ground, shattering into bits upon impact. As the cracks grow even larger and spread out farther, it is revealed that they are being created by a large drill, and soon it pierces through the ceiling revealing that the robot they fought earlier has broken through layers of the Earth and found it's way to the altar...Then comes the revelation that it is still in the same tattered state that Geno had left it in, and it ends up falling drill first onto the ground with the tool becoming bent out of shape when it comes into contact with some diamonds that were on the ground. As it continues to bend, the drill eventually is flung off of the robot, landing beside the heroes and dragging itself across the ground, tearing up some of the weaker rocks before ramming into the wall, drill point first. Once the group drops their guards, Gemini is about to put his weapon away.

"False alarm, it's just the robot that Fawful took control of earlier." Luigi states. "It seems that I damaged it to the point that it is no longer functional." Alex starts walking back towards the altar, when one of the wires on the robot's sides starts wiggling ever so slightly. "Functioning system...damaged..." The robot murmurs. "Power unit...found...Retrieving now..." At this point, the wiggling wire lashes out at the altar, latching itself tightly around the Earth Stone, Alex shifts one arm out in front of him in shock. "It's still active!" He exclaims in fright, his eyes widened at this revelation. He tries to punch at the robot's wire arm in an attempt to prevent it from taking the stone, but the robot decides to put up his other wire arms in defense, and the electrified tips end up touching Alex's body, causing him to reel back in shock and land on his back. The robot stuffs the stone into the open compartment on his back, and a bright brown light flashes from within it, and just a few seconds later the entire backside is littered with a multitude of diamond spikes of which some end up piercing through the metallic backside. Dark gray rocks start to wrap themselves around the wires of the robot, as the wires themselves meld together to form two bulky wire arms. As the rocks cover the wires up completely, they take the shape of two giant rocky hands which resemble that of a humans.

Using these newly formed limbs, the robot pushes itself off of the ground and stands up on his four rebuilt golden legs, which now do not look cheaply held together by wires, and instead are held together by molten amber which hardens in an instant. The black crescent with the red eye in the center has now been replaced with a golden crescent that has a silver eye in the center. The robot stamps his feet onto the ground and causes a small earthquake to rumble through the temple, and causes the heroes to lose their balance slightly. Alex lifts himself up off the ground and kneels on his left knee, standing and staring up at the robot with a couple burn marks on his shirt that were formed when he was shocked. The robot's eye lowers itself to take a look at Alex. "Data Reconstruction complete. Resolution of system errors have been resolved. Focusing all units towards destruction of intruders. Initializing protocol RTH-015." The guardian then extends it's hands out towards the boy. "Removal of electronic interference organic based virus initializing." Alex realizes that the robot is about to attack him, but his body is too worn out from the previous electrical shock, and he can barely move his legs. "Darn it all..." He moans.

The robot extends one leg out and steps forward to get near Alex and grab him, but is distracted by a leaf bouncing off of his left arm. "Error, unknown substance contacted." The guardian moves it's eye around to find the source of the attack. It locks on to Driad, whose left arm has changed to the shape of his leaf blade. The Crayzee Dayzee looks surprised by the fact that his leaf attack didn't cut through the rocks. The rest of the heroes are in their battle poses, but Gemini and Luigi are nowhere to be found. As the robot locks onto Driad, it is able to quickly identify him. "Subject confirmed as photosynthesis guardian unit Driad. Raising threat level of this situation to Mild, and reconfirming the attempted attack as a product of said subject. Response to assault decided, activating now..." With this, the robot lifts it's right arm up and reconfigures his hand so it takes the shape of a small pistol, complete with an exact replica of the barrel AND trigger of it. The trigger clicks, and a rock that is shaped like a bullet is fired out of the front of the pistol and flies towards Driad. Naturally, the heroes jump out of the way because they don't know just what it can do. The twist to this bullet comes when it impacts with the ground. The shell ends up coming off, revealing that an active mine was placed inside of it. The mine goes off, and the explosion that comes from it takes the group by surprise as they are flung across the room with each of them being slammed into the walls on the opposite sides of the room. As their backs impact with the walls, they ricochet off of them and land on the ground, their bodies becoming injured after they fall.

Mario lifts himself off the ground, using his right arm as support while looking around to see how everyone is holding up. "Everyone ok?" He asks. The rest of the group weakly nod their heads, and the plumber starts to get up on his own two feet while shaking his head around to get rid of the throbbing going on inside of him. At this point he wonders where Luigi and Gemini have gone off to. Behind the hulking robot, the Koopa in question has quietly sneaked behind it while it was distracted with the rest of the group. He has prepped his trident for an attack and swiftly leaps off the ground, gaining enough height to be right above the robot itself. Gripping his trident, Gemini shifts his arm out to toss the trident onto the top of the robot, the impact of which causes it to pierce into the metallic plate that lies on the roof. With this action, the Koopa has caused the robot to turn it's head around and shift it's attention to him. "Breach of surface materials detected, cause of breach classified as a trident, said object made out of a compound of tellurium in such materials as sylvanite and calaverite." As the robot is describing the compounds of the trident, a small electric shock coarsens through it, causing the robot to stutter a bit as it speaks. "E-lectr-ical sho-ck, detec-ted..." With this, another diamond spike grows through the roof of the robot, sending the trident flying out of it, where Gemini then jumps up into the air to catch with his hands.

The robot moves it's eye to lock on to the Koopa, and determines some factors involving his powers. "Subject is confirmed as a turtle class bioweapon...Error...Unknown species confirmed...Creature is neither organic nor inorganic...Due to unknown origins of creature and confirmation of electronic disruptions in the area, threat level of this situation has been raised to High. Taking counter measures now." While the robot motions his human-like hand towards the walls surrounding them, Luigi sneaks over to Alex. He whispers "Don't worry, I'm here to move you to a more safe location." in order to make sure that the robot does not overhear their conversation. Alex nods his head, thankful to the man in green for coming to rescue him. By slowly getting back on his feet, Alex is able to take his left arm and wrap it over Luigi's shoulders. The brother of Mario supports the boy's body by placing one hand on his back and another hand on his torso, walking him along the ground to get him away from the field of battle. Magical bolts of energy are fired from the fingertips of the robot's rocky hand and strike the marble tiles that are sticking to the wall. The robot violently motions his hand towards Gemini, and a total of five marble tiles fly off the walls and rocket towards him. Not one to fall for such an obvious ruse, Gemini cocks his trident and swipes it across the air to the side of him, the sharp tips slashing through a total of four tiles before the sharp pain hits his right leg once more. Turns out that one tiles slipped under his attack and impacted with his leg, and due to the speeds it was going at it managed to cripple the leg when it hit. Gemini's face grimaces in pain, and he is forced to kneel on the ground unable to move a single muscle. Luigi, who has just finished moving Alex off to the side near the entrance to the room, turns around and notices that Gemini is in danger of another attack by the robot, who is moving it's gun hand down to point at Gemini. "MAMA MIA!" He exclaims.

The green thunder stamps his left foot into the ground and positions his right foot to be standing right in front of his body, bending down and tucking his fists into his chest while positioning his head so it lines up perfectly with the robot. A small whistling sound can be heard coming from his body, as steam rises out from underneath the soles of his shoes. By applying a high amount of air pressure from the bottom of his shoes, Luigi is able to spring up into the air, but the positioning of his feet and head means that the rest of his body ends up propelling forward as well. He extends his arms out to the sides of his body and sticks his legs straight out behind him, making his body look like a human missile. He flies forward and the tip of his head impacts with the side of the pistol arm, which shifts it's aim away from Gemini and forces it to fire a bullet up through the hole in the ceiling. Luigi's head ends up getting stuck in with the rocks, and he tries using his arms to push against the rocks and force himself out only for the robot to start violently swinging it's arm around in an attempt to get the man in green off of him. This action of swinging is causing more bullets to be fired out of the barrel, making more explosions happen as they impact the ground. These explosions also break up the ground below them, sending chunks of rock flying all over the place and sending the remainder of the heroes into a state of panic as they duck down and cover their heads to protect themselves. "IT'S LIKE A WARZONE OUT HERE MARIO!" Driad exclaims, scared by the fact that his life is consistently in danger while these bullets are going off.

Gemini is able to take advantage of this distraction caused by Luigi and he lifts one hand up from beside his body and points it at the shoulder area of the robot's pistol arms. "An arm for a leg..." He says, smirking and looking at the robot with a wild look in his eyes. Moving his fingers around so they take the shape of a pistol, the Koopa clicks down on the "trigger", and from the tips of his finger comes a shot of lightning that moves at speeds that are unnoticeable by anyone in the room and which moves through the cracks left in the rocky arm and makes it's way to the wires that lie beneath the many layers of rock. By flowing through the wires, the electricity that Gemini fired is able to mess up the transmission of control electrons that traveled inside of them, thus making the wires become unable to receive commands from the main body of the robot. Then for good measure, the Koopa manages to cause the wires to detach themselves from the robot, thus preventing it from possibly re-establishing a connection to his left arm. The rocky arm falls off the side of the robot, and at this time Luigi is able to push himself out of the arm and land on the ground feet first, watching as the arm makes contact with the ground and breaks off into nothing more than a pile of tiny stones. The robot moves it's eye over to the side of it's body where the arm just feel off, and that very eye slowly starts to become a darker shade of silver, angered by the destruction of a part of his body. The cold, emotionless and calculating robotic voice gives way to a new, angry and very stern sounding voice. "THAT IS IT! THREAT LEVEL HAS BEEN RAISED TO CRITICAL! NO MORE MERCY SHALL BE GIVEN TO YOU BIO CREATURES!" The robot then takes his remaining arm and fires a few magical energy bolts at the pile of rocks that lie on the ground. The rocks lift up off the ground and combine to form into the shape of a sword. The guardian takes the sword from out of the air, and without missing a beat it instantly swings it down at Gemini.

Unable to move due to his crippled leg, the Koopa's eyes widen in fear at the sight of the sword. Before it impacts with him, Luigi tackles Gemini out of the way of the sword, and with the speeds it is falling down at the robot is unable to stop it from falling onto the ground and becoming stuck in it. The two heroes tumble along the ground, both of them falling on their sides once they are done bouncing. Gemini regains his composure, and looks at the man in green as if he lost his mind. "Are you crazy Luigi? The way you rammed me just now could've dislodged my other leg from my body!" Luigi gets up and dusts his pants off, taking a brief glance over at Gemini as he rants. "You're welcome." He says nonchalantly. Gemini shakes his head, realizing that he is acting like a bit of a jerk right now after being saved. "Sorry about that. Thanks for saving me there." Luigi rubs his left knuckles onto his shirt to remove some dirt that was on there, then gives a thumbs up to Gemini, and without saying a single word he picks Gemini up and goes to carry him over to where Alex is. The robot is not about to let the two of them escape his sight though, so it decides to forget all about removing the sword from the ground, as any time wasted dealing with that leaves him wide open for an attack. Removing it's grip from the hilt of sword, the robot flashes a silver laser from it's eye to atomize the sword into nothing more than tiny bits of rock dust.

"Erode and become part of the ground you walk on!" The robot exclaims. The two heroes instantly assume that the robot is going to use the dust to attack them, and though they are right about the fact that the robot is going to do something with the dust, they are wrong about it targeting them. The robot knew that if he tried to attack the two heroes, the man in green would just be able to pick up the Koopa and avoid the attack, so the robot decides to attack the one person who is currently unguarded. Flinging his rocky hand out in front of him, the tiny storm of rock dust picks up off the ground and flies towards where Alex is currently resting. The boy lifts his head up and notices the dust coming towards him, the intent to kill being harbored in the robot that commands it. "Darn it all, I still can't move…" Alex wearily whispers to himself, lifting his arms up to try and protect himself from the brunt of the attack, even though he knows that the rock dust will just tear through his skin.

"Oh no you don't!" A familiar italian voice exclaims. The boy removes his arms from his face and sees Mario standing in front of him, a yellow cape gripped in the palm of his right hand. As the dust closes in, Mario sweeps the cape out in front of him, creating a counterforce of wind to directed the rock dust away from the two of them. The robot is dumbfounded, and it's voice changes back to it's old one. "Error...Logic in such a move not found..." Then it's voice reverts back to it's angry tone. "But it matters not! You cannot avoid the dust forever!" With that, the robot redirects it's hand motions so the dust wave will fly back towards the plumber. Mario closes his eyelids and swings the cape again, sending the dust away once more. The robot's glowing eye squints slightly out of annoyance and it waves his hand again. The same thing as before happens, yet the robot continues trying to breech this insurmountable defense. After Mario continues to repeatedly blow the dust away, the robot's eye turns red, and he just flings his arm up into the air, causing the dust to go upwards where it then floats far above the heroes and out of range of Mario's cape.

"DIE!" The robot exclaims, about ready to slam it's hand down onto the ground to send the dust at the two heroes to finish them off, but suddenly the top of it's head meets the bottom of a Snowman's body and causes the robot to lose it's focus on the rock dust and make it's legs collapse beneath the combined weight of both it's body and that of the Snowman. A loud crunch sound is made as the robot sticks it's remaining arm out in vain. The winter titan then vanishes. Mario turns to the left and finds Mallow holding his staff out in front of him, giving a mild glance over to his friend with a victorious smile on his face. The plumber tucks his cape away into his overalls and gives a thumbs up at Mallow now that they had successfully defeated the robot. Or so they thought. The robot's body whirs back to life, as the rocky hand twitches ever so slightly. Though the heroes aren't initially worried about the robot's reawakening, what it utters next leaves the heroes faces pale with fear. "Defeat realized...Shame must be buried away...Activating eight point magnitude earthquake...Initializing...Shutdown...of...systems..." With this, the eye of the robot vanishes away, replaced with nothing more than the pitch black colors of darkness. Before it died though, it tapped the ground with it's remaining rocky hand, this final action causing the rock arm to disassemble itself and the little rocks scatter across the ground. The diamond spikes on it's back also retract back into it's body, which is followed up by a light trembling of the ground beneath the heroes' feet.

"Earthquake? We got to get out of here! NOW!" Mario exclaims, his pupils shrinking from the fear he is experiencing. "If we don't, we will quite literally be buried alive!" The plumber shifts his head around in search for an exit to this place. He finds another cavern on the other side of room with stairs that go up, possibly a way to reach the ground above them. "I found the stairs! Let's-a go!" He exclaims, wrapping his arms around Alex to help carry him across the room. While Luigi does the same with Gemini. The heroes begin to run to the other side of the room, when Driad remembers that the stone is still stuck inside the robot. "Whoa! Hang on a second guys!" He exclaims. The group rushes to the staircase, but the Crayzee Dayzee quickly pulls a one-eighty and extends his vines out to reach into the back of the robot and grab the Earth Stone from within. "DRIAD! DON'T! YOU WILL ACTIVATE THE GUARDIAN DEFENSE MECHANISM!" Alex exclaims from afar, but to his surprise Driad is able to pull the stone out without the usual light show going off and a guardian appearing. The trembling of the ground starts to become more violent, so the heroes continue moving onward. Driad uses his other vine arm to latch onto the rocks above the opposite cavern and quickly flies back over to it and land on the first stair step, following his friends as they run up the stairs to avoid being caught up in the cave as it begins to collapse.

Back in the cavern, the structure starts to tremble in such a way that the marble tiles are loosened from the walls and start to crash onto the ground individually, shattering into pieces upon impact. The little rocks that remain of the robot's arm begin to bounce up and down off the ground, jiggling around due to the instability of floor below. As the marble tiles stop falling, the rocky ceiling that remains behind them starts to crack apart, their plates being unable to stay together due to the increasingly violent shakings of the room. Thus large boulders begin to break off of the ceiling, crashing towards the ground in the form of a landslide and knocking up piles of dust with every impact. Eventually the room becomes so engulfed by the boulders and dust that it becomes impossible to tell just what is going on in there anymore. Meanwhile, the heroes have made it halfway up the stairs, but even they start to feel the trembling caused by the earthquake. They try their hardest to rush up the staircase without losing their balance and falling, but certain details are distracting them, like Driad keeping the Earth Stone held tightly to his chest and the fact that the Mario Bros. are busy carrying Alex and Gemini.

A collapsing noise is heard as the stairs behind the heroes begin to break apart one at a time, crumbling into pieces and falling into a chasm that lies below there. The group picks up the pace, making it closer to the sunlight at the top that pierces the darkness of the cave that surrounds them. "Almost there everyone!" Geno exclaims, having the easiest time out of all of the heroes due to the fact that he can float in the air instead of placing his feet down on the stairs like everyone else is. Eventually they make it to the top of the staircase...and find that the light they saw wasn't sunlight, but was simply a florescent lightbulb placed on the back of a boulder. "Are you kid-" Alex is unable to finish that sentence, because at this point Gemini has lost his composure due to everything in the universe wanting him dead today. So the Koopa merely thrusts his hand at the boulder blocking their way, and with an angrily exclaimed "SCREW THIS!" he fires a massive beam of electricity that blasts right through the boulder to destroy it completely. But alas, this exhausts the remainder of his energy and the Koopa falls into unconsciousness. The rest of the heroes then rush through the final stretch of the cave and into the sun-drenched sands of the desert. More specifically, they are now directly outside of Moleville. As the earthquake finishes up and the last stair step vanishes, Driad jumps out of the cave, his body having created a massive amount of dew in the time of his nervous fit.

In fact, pretty much all of the heroes are dripping with adrenaline, save for Geno for obvious reasons. Their breaths are heavy and at the same time, relieved. They barely managed to avoid death AGAIN. When they think about it though, they've managed to avoid death a total of three times in just one day! This weighs heavily on their minds, for there are still two temples left, and who knows if they will be able to be as lucky the next time around...But out of the all heroes, Driad has a important question stuck in his mind. "Guys, this has been bothering me..." He speaks up, panting and looking at the Earth Stone clasped tightly in his leafy hand. "I can understand that the robot probably used up the stone's energy, so that is why the real guardian didn't appear...But how was the robot able to grasp the stone without it activating? I mean, every other time that we've touched the stone or attempted to grab it, it activated automatically. But the reaction to the robot grabbing it was delayed until after it let go, and by that point the robot was able to absorb it's powers and use them against us." Mario tilts his head and shuts his eyelids to think about this, but is unable to come up with an answer to his friend's question. "That will have to be something that we will need to bring up to E. Gadd." Mallow responds. Mario opens his eyelids and nods in agreement to what the cloud Prince just said. "For now, let us get Alex and Gemini back to Toad Town. We got a long trek ahead of us, so let us get moving now." Geno says. The heroes all nod their heads and start to walk through Moleville so they can make their way back to Toad Town, all of them glad to be alive...

_Next Time: The third phase of Interference_


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25: Interference III, Rhapsody of Sin**

In the deep reaches of the Mushroom Kingdom, in a mountain range long since forgotten by Toad and Koopas alike, there exists a base where the greatest soldiers and protectors of the planet are trained. The Mushroom Spy Industry, or M.S.I. for short, is the home of a wide variety of species. They are trained and serve under one authoritative figure. Outside of the base itself, very few have seen this figure's true identity, for he prefers to hide in the shadows and watch over the planet daily, making sure the peace is maintained as best as he can. He is the one who sent Gemini out to join our heroes, and he is the Grand Commander of this entire army. His name is Alpha, and as of this moment he is sitting on his chair in his signature Command Sphere, watching over a crystalline building in the frozen heights of the Shiver Mountains as the familiar figure of Cackletta walks out of it, a pale blue crown marked with four round rubies gripped in her ghastly hands. His golden mechanical arms grip the edge of the arm rests tightly, wrinkling the leather that covers it oh so slightly. "What is that wench doing now..." Alpha gruffly and quietly asks himself.

The evil witch moves her head around, her wrinkled face showing signs of cautiousness, but she quickly tosses this feeling aside and moves her left hand away from the crown, motioning it off to the side and ruffling the cape that surrounds her body. A hole made out of darkness appear on the mountainside and Cackletta shifts her body towards it, entering it and making it vanish right as she does this. Alpha moves his chair forward, takes his mechanical limbs, and proceeds to start typing in a location on his highly advanced control panel. The monitor showing the palace flickers with a glow of static, and the view changes to that of ANOTHER crystalline palace that exists high above the clouds. Cackletta can be seen walking into it, leaving Alpha's view completely. In anger, the Commander slams his fist down onto the control panel, smashing down a few of the buttons that mark it. "The damn witch is going into the Frozen Palace...The sixth temple..." Alpha moves his fist away from the control panel and opens it up, looking into his palm with a feeling of guilt.

"I was given the name Alpha because you saw me as the Beginning of a peaceful era for this Kingdom...I thought sending Gemini in to help would be enough..." The figure turns his chair around and jumps out of his seat, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. Extending his left arm out in front of him, a few mechanical whirs start up as the gears in it spin and creak. He then grips onto the area above the elbow with his right hand and bends his left hand up into the air, a few gears cracking as he does this. "But it looks as though I'm going to have to make a personal appearance to end not just Cackletta, but to remove these thoughts of vengeance that have clouded my mind for the last twenty-seven years..." Alpha moves his arms off towards the side of his body, and lets out a heavy yawn. "First off though...I need to get some sleep...If my hunch is correct anyways, that damn witch isn't planning on leaving with the stone...So I got time to spare..." With that, Alpha leaves the Command Sphere to get some rest. Even as he exits, the room remains lit up with the flashing images of the world that appear on the computer screens.

Back in the desert, night has fallen, and a sandstorm has begun to blow across the lands. In the depths of this storm, a shadow of a certain boy can be seen crawling across the landscape with just one hand. The boy is Joe Dark, and though he is still alive despite the wounds delivered to his body by Geno that are slowly but surely weakening him, he has but one thought on his mind. "Whi...ter...Whi...ter...Damn it! I will kill them...all..." He gasps for air, grains of sand lodging themselves into his throat. The hole made through one of his hands has had to feel the gritty grains of the desert storm, but the boy's focus is so completely dead set on revenge that he does not even flinch in the face of all this harm that is being brought upon his body.

_"You are pathetic...You let yourself be used as my vessel, and as quickly as you embraced the share of my powers I assumed you would be able to get the job done..." _A dark voice echoes through Joe Dark's head. He stops crawling and grips his head with his hands, wincing in pain due to having to listen to the voices in his head. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! ...I will kill Whiter myself next time, and I won't be stopped by any factors! Now get out of my head and let me do this my way!" _"That I cannot do...You want the boy dead, and you also want those who defend him dead...The power I gave you was merely microscopic, I can grant you an endless valley of darkness that will be at your sword, your shield, your very life essence! If you choose to do so, you will be in command of the very blackness of the universe, the grand king of everything that bears the mark of darkness in their hearts! What will you choose to do now, young one?" _Joe Dark is silent, the winds of the desert starting to slowly die down as he removes his hands from his head, a truly maniacal looking grin being marked across his face, his eyes lit up with an expression of wickedness the likes of which he has never shown before.

"Just point me in the right direction, and I shall take this power you so wish to place upon me and use it to kill Whiter as gruesomely as I can..." A ghastly image of a wide fanged grin appears above Joe Dark's near lifeless body, and it opens to speak to him again. _"Excellent..." _It says, that single word slipping off his tongue in such a way that shows his devilish excitement. With that, a portal of darkness appears below Joe Dark's body, and he begins to sink into it, not even bothering to struggle and keeping that toothy grin across his face. As he sinks into the darkness completely, the portal vanishes and the storm dies down completely, leaving the pale light of the moon to shine gently against the plains of the desert...

The moon is not just shining brightly on the desert though. On a hill top that lies northeast from Peach's Castle, there exists a place called Shooting Star Summit. The grounds of the hill are painted with a majestic purplish glow, and a few ghostly white stars pattern the floor. The edges of the hill are lined with a few elegant ivory leaves which are placed together perfectly to act as a border to prevent people from walking off. If one were to advance up the hill, they would find that the smooth sides of the hill change colors from purple to blue, and then the sides of the peak are colored by a pattern of red, yellow and green. During every second of the day, a multitude of colorful stars falls down from the sky, and a couple of them have been lodged into the ground and shine ever so brightly due to their radiant glows. At the very top of this hill, Geno stands and looks out towards the starry sky above as the twinkling lights of the stars shine down upon his body. He has his arms folded into his body as he is currently waiting for Driad to show up. A cold night breeze is blowing throughout the hills, ruffling his blue cape back and forth.

"The stars shine so brightly tonight...A sign of further happiness? Or a forewarning to a terrible catastrophe..." The doll lowers his head to his chest and begins thinking, when his train of thought is interrupted by the voice of Driad, who has just made his way to the top of the hill and is standing behind him. "Alright Geno, I'm here now." He says, a serious look marking his face. Geno turns around and lifts his head up, opening his eyes to stare at Driad's flowery face. "I'm glad you could show up. No one else knows that you are here, correct?" He asks. "I told them that I was going for a long walk, but they don't know where I've gone off to." The Crayzee Dayzee replies. "Mallow insisted on coming along, but despite me swiftly turning him down I doubt he would have followed me here." He then takes his vine arm to his chin and begins to rub it. "Why does it matter if anyone follows me anyways?" He asks, shutting his eyelids slightly and tilting his head out of confusion. Geno takes his left hand out from under his cape and points it at Driad. "This matter involves you and me only, if I told anyone else of this issue, it would lead to some major issues of trust down the road between the Star Spirits and the rest of our group...Maybe even the whole world as well."

"And just what kind of issue would be so important that you would only be able to tell me?" Driad asks. The doll takes a deep breath in through his wooden mouth, a bit weary of having to tell his ally what he is about to tell him. His friend's wide-eyed look of anticipation is NOT helping him in making up his mind, but he decides in the long run that there is no way out of this now. So the doll musters up the courage inside of his body needed for this task and folds his left arm back into his body, and proceeds to stare at Driad with a serious look on his face. "We've met before." The words Geno utters echoes through the Crayzee Dayzee's head for a few seconds, leaving him dumbfounded and absolutely taken by surprise by the comment. His vine arms drop to the ground, and as does the rest of his body as he is now kneeling and staring up at Geno in confusion. "What" He states flatly. "We've met before." Geno repeats. "Two thousand years ago to be exact."

"Two thousand years ago?" Driad responds, his head throbbing in pain for some reason. "But, back then I was..." "The outside guardian of the Nature Castle, yes." Geno says, interrupting his ally because he knew that the both of them understood the situation at hand. "The reason you don't remember me is because you lost to a Boo a long time ago, and as the rules for the guardian system show any guardians who lose to wild creatures that do not have the same element as them lose their memories and regress to a lower state of the evolutionary chain while the wild creature become the new guardian." The Crayzee Dayzee stops breathing heavily for a moment and looks at Geno in bewilderment. "Wait, how did you know that I lost to a Boo?" The star warrior lowers his head in shame, his mind wandering through the phases of guilt as he prepares his next sentence. "I…I watched as you were attacked and defeated by it many years ago, from atop Star Haven..."

Driad stops staring at the doll in confusion at this very moment. Instead, he begins looking at him with anger in his eyes. He clenches his vine covered fists, and slightly shuts his eyelids so they are placed diagonally across his forehead. This so-called "good guy", a guardian of the stars, and the herald of the supposedly pure Star Spirits sat back and watched as Driad was mercilessly defeated, his entire life so far forgotten in the instance of that fateful day. The Crayzee Dayzee thrusts himself onto his feet and runs over to Geno and by using the thorns that cover his hand he grabs him by the cape collar and lifts him up into the air, violently sticking his thorns into Geno's wooden chest to make sure he can't escape. "You DAMN filthy doll! My life was ruined by the events that occurred on that very day! I sat in that forest alone for two thousand years, not knowing just what my purpose was, and without even knowing it until recently I had lost the true memories of half of my VERY existence! And you, you just sat there and watched as I was beaten to the point where I would've been better off dead! I ought to tear your scrawny wooden body into tiny little splinters and devour the star body that lives inside of it!" The star warrior is silent, his eyelids shut in the face of his ally's righteous fury, and he can't help but think that Driad should be allowed to take his feelings out on the shell that he inhabits. "Go right ahead and do it then Driad...I won't stop you." Geno calmly says, tilting his head back in shame. "But if you are willing to hear me out, I will explain my side of the story..." Driad pants madly for a few moments from the intense build-up of emotions inside of him, seeing as he wants to hear the doll's side of the story though he calms down a bit, and the scowl on his face vanishes momentarily. "...Very well, I will let you talk...But you better choose your words wisely, or I WILL destroy you Geno." The doll politely pulls his head forward and gives a little nod of agreement. "Alright then...Let me begin..."

"_When we met long ago, it was before I was given to the Star Spirits. I was created by the Elemental Overlord as a sort of peace offering to them. But that is not an important part of the tale right now. What matters is that at the time of my creation, I was but a small speck of a star, floating around the Overlord like a sort of fly. He was always being followed by the seven inner guardians, and one robed figure...Though I never directly saw just who was under the robe, I merely knew that whoever was under there was of the female persuasion. When we arrived at the ruins that would later become the Nature Castle, I watched the Overlord make modifications to the place so it would be harder for the unprepared to navigate. It was amazing, the man created a wide assortment of plants that never clashed with each other, the majesty of the place could simply not be described by a mere mortal…Well, at the very least, that's what it was like before the decaying waves of time took hold._

_Anyways, before he sealed away the Gaiden Planet into the Grass Stone, he asked the monstrous creature for what kind of guardian it wanted to be created to protect the outside of the temple. And it was with that moment that the Overlord created you. It was very long ago and I was just a newborn at the time, so I cannot remember the details of just what you looked like back then, but I do remember you attempting to grab me with your vines perhaps because you were so interested in my appearance...Either way, I continued along with the Overlord as he went to each of the other six temples, creating the other outside guardians and sealing away the inner ones into the stones...There was a time that he and the cloaked woman vanished from my sight for a period of two days...When the two days were up, only the woman ended up coming back to me again. Apparently, the Overlord finished sealing the rest of his energy away into a main temple, and they did it in secret so I wouldn't know. It makes sense, I guess they didn't want to risk the possibility of someone finding me and ripping the info out._

_Either way, the woman was given very specific instructions by the Overlord to take me to Star Haven and leave me there with the Star Spirits. When the spirits agreed, I basically was left there...I do not remember the entire conversation, but there was something about the Star Spirits promising to stay quiet about the Element Temples until the time was right. Anyways, years passed by, and as I continued to wander around Star Haven I found myself attached to watching over you as you guarded the Nature Castle. I was not allowed to travel far from the Shooting Star Summit, so the only temple I was able to hang around was the Nature Castle. There I watched as you fought off any and all creatures and adventurers that attempted to enter. It was interesting. As a holy spirit, I cared little for the slaughtering of living creatures, but I noticed that despite your continuation of your duty you always shed a tear after your victim had fallen. Perhaps that was part of the reason that you intrigued me, a curious being you were…But then came that horrendous day..._

_You were unable to defeat the Boo, as it's intangibility made it impossible for you to land any physical attacks on it. I watched as you were hurt by the creature, as I was left unable to interfere due to the fact that I did not have a body to fight with...I was going to rush back and ask for the Star Spirits help, but by the time I arrived there it was too late…I received word that you had fallen and regressed into the state that you are in now where you then began to wander the woods by yourself, a shell of your former self...To this day I still regret being unable to do anything, my innocence being a chain that prevented me from responding in time. Eventually, I was unable to continue watching you in the Osagi Woods, as you went outside my limitations...So when I saw you today, alive and well, it eased my troubled soul to know that despite your weakened state, you managed to live for all of these years…"_

Driad listened closely to Geno's tale, and by the time the entire story was said and done Driad felt like he understood the doll's actions a lot more than he could before. Sure he was unable to save him, but the fact that he tried to get the Star Spirits to intervene was a sign that he was truly a good person deep down. The Crayzee Dayzee retracts his vines away from Geno's chest and lets go of him, letting him fall to the ground on his back with a thud. Suddenly, he is able to remember a certain detail about his past thanks to the specific actions he had just performed, and the memory that returns to him is the exact detail that Geno had brought up about how he tried to grab him with his vines. When this memory has passed a tear drop of dew dribbles from his left eye duct. "You aren't lying Geno...You and I did meet before, and I did exactly what you said I did..." Driad begins to cry uncontrollably, pressing his hands against his face and kneeling onto the ground while bending his face forward. The doll lifts his head up off the ground, moving his arms around so his hands are pressing against the ground to lift the rest of his body up as well. Regaining his stature, Geno stands before Driad and extends his hand out as an apology. "I'm sorry that those events had to transpire in your life...I cannot return those years and no amount of apologizing will owe up for my mistake, but will you still shake my hand and accept me as your ally?" The Crayzee Dayzee stops crying, and wipes the water out from underneath his eyes. He lets out a tiny sniffle and extends his left vine out to shake Geno's hand. "It's not your fault Geno, you were unable to do anything, and since you admitted the truth to me there is really no reason for me to be angry at you now..."

The two warriors give each other a welcoming glance as both of them now accept each other as friends, having conquered the rift of anger that was placed between them. The two of them move their hands away from each other and Driad gets back onto his feet, his tear dripped face shining brightly against the light of the moon. "So, you think that there might be any way for me to regain all of my memories?" The flower asks. Geno shakes his head, uncertain on just how to answer that question. "I don't know, it seems as though you might be regaining them right now...I assume that exposure to the element stones has helped to restore your powers somehow. But as for how long it will take, that is the uncertain part. It might be tomorrow, it might be years from now, but it seems as though you are recovering. For now, I suggest we rest up. It was a long and hard day for all of us, and we must be prepare for the ventures and trials that will be placed before us tomorrow." Driad nods his head in agreement, and the two of them walk off the hill to head back to Toad Town for a good night's rest.

Even though by now most of the group was getting a much needed rest at either the Inn or the Mario Bros.' house, the main plumber himself was at E. Gadd's lab, having the elderly professor examine the Earth Stone that they had worked so hard to collect. He was curious about a few things. As the Professor finished examining the stone he walked over to the table that Mario was sitting down at and took a seat on one of the empty chairs that lied around it. Placing the Earth Stone on the steel table, E. Gadd had the following to say. "The stone is completely out of power Mario, I'm sorry to say that it's currently in it's recharging phase." He nudges his glasses slightly with his left hand to push them up above his nose. Mario takes the stone off the table and gives it a heavy stare, still wondering why it didn't activate. "The robot took the stone and absorbed it's power...So the stone lost it's ability to summon the guardian?" He asks, puzzled about the whole ordeal. "That's what it looks like." E. Gadd places his arms down onto the table. "Also, while you are here, I have some good news for you."

"Oh?" Mario says, placing the Earth Stone into his overall's pocket. "I have finished translating the part of the tablet that talks about the locations of the remaining two temples. The last two are called the Frozen Palace and the Ignitor Cave. If you wish, I can input the locations of them both on your iGadd." Mario thinks about this for a moment. While learning the locations of the two temples now would be a good idea, if on the off chance something were to happen to them, then the enemy would be able to take the iGadd and learn the location of the final temple. "No, just upload the data for the Frozen Palace for now." He replies, taking the iGadd out of his overalls and handing it over to E. Gadd. The professor gives a confirming nod, picks the iGadd up, gets out of his chair, and walks over to the computer to install the info for the Frozen Palace's location. This process takes but a minute or two, and he returns to the plumber with the updated iGadd in hand. Mario stuffs it back into his overalls, and gets out of the chair.

"Thank you for your help E. Gadd." The plumber lowers his head out of respect for E. Gadd's service, and turns around. The old man has one last thing to say to Mario though. "The parts I ordered a few days ago are going to arrive early tomorrow, way ahead of schedule. Since the last temple is a fire based one, I shall work on upgrading F.L.U.D.D. for you. But please Mario..." He nudges his glasses again and begins walking back towards his computer. "Stop worrying about Peach, I don't think your mind has been at ease since she was kidnapped, and you and I both know that the situation involving her will be resolved like always. So take my advice and focus your attention on the stone collecting. Oh ho ho ho, now if you shall excuse me, I will continue translating the remainder of the tablet for any information about the main temple. G'night then..." E. Gadd says. While Mario listened to what the professor had to say, but he knows can't stop worrying about Peach until she is sitting safely in her castle again. The plumber exits the lab, and enters the quiet night of Toad Town ready to head home for a good night's rest. Mallow was watching over Alex and Gemini at the inn where they are getting treated by the local Doctor, PH T., and Luigi had already gone off back home. Driad and Geno had wandered off, but Mario knew that Driad was going to come back to their house after his walk and that Geno could take care of himself. Thus, Mario began his walk through the silent town, to prepare for their journey to the Frozen Palace in the morning...

_Next Time: Lunar Fury on the Icy Mountains_


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26: Freeze my Heart, Burn down the Moon.**

It is now morning again, and the delicate rays of the sun began to cast themselves across the grassy, dew covered landscapes that lie right outside of Toad Town. Inside the walls that lay around the town there is a small mushroom shaped INN, the yellow-shelled Koopa named Gemini and the young boy Alex rest on fluffy cotton beds with their healing bodies covered by patterned blankets that are laced together by multiple kinds of colored yarn. A closer examination of the INN shows that Alex has the front of the bedsheets gripped in his right hand, it being wrinkled due to him gripping it so tightly around his palm. With it snuggled up to his face, the boy can be seen grinning from ear to ear, a pleasant dream drifting through the corridors of his peaceful mind.

But these pleasant dreams are not to last, by the looks of things. Alex's face begins to quiver, as his grip on the blanket tightens. His eyelids squint together tightly, and sweat starts to develop on his forehead. He is also muttering to himself in pain, as if his dream has become one of fear and desolation. "No..no...don't go...No..." Alex jerks himself up off the bed, clenching the bedsheets closely to his chest and letting out an absolutely blood curling scream, with the pupils of his eyes shrunken to the size of a pencil's tip. "COME BACK!" He exclaims, the screams from his mouth causing Gemini to jolt right out of bed feet first, his hands ready to fight an intruder, but because his legs are still not 100% healed up a sharp pain quickly forces him to collapse on the ground face first. "OW! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!" He exclaims. Alex shifts his focus over to Gemini and nervously reacts to the fact that he is on the ground, realizing that his scream must have made him think that they were under attack. Removing the bedsheets from his grip, Alex jumps out of the bed and landing next to Gemini to help him up.

"Sorry Gemini, I just had a bad dream..." The boy extends his hand out to Gemini, who is currently clenching his damaged leg tightly, squinting his eyes in pain. "A bad dream? It sounded like you were being killed Alex..." Gemini retorts, slightly annoyed by the fact that he was woken up by something as trivial as a bad dream. Alex, on the other hand, shifts his eyes off to the side, mumbling something to himself. "There was killing going on, but I wasn't the victim..." A hint of sadness brushing past his lips as he talks. "You say something Alex?" Gemini asks. The boy flips his eyes back over to look at his friend and shake his head, denying any claims of talking. Gemini takes his hand and grabs a hold of Alex's outstretched one. After being lifted off the ground, Gemini goes back onto the bed, sitting down and examining his leg. It is at this point that a Toad with a gold-dotted cap on his head, a thick wavy brown mustache on his face, and a doctor's outfit complete with a stethoscope on his body. He walks over to the Koopa and places the metallic plate of the stethoscope onto his chest.

"Mmm-hmm...Yes...mmm-hmm..." The doctor Toad hums to himself, occasionally tossing out the cliched "Yes" in between hummings. "Well, how does it look doctor?" Gemini asks. "Well, your heart sounds a bit static-y...Kind of like it's made of electricity. To me, this situation seems quite..." The doctor retracts his stethoscope back into his chest and reaches into his pocket protector, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and applying them onto his face. He then raises his head and looks directly at Gemini's face, his eyebrows crunched against his eyes. "Shocking." At this point, the view switches out to the outside of a large modern day Earth city, complete with a sunset background. A loud YEAAAAAAAAHHHHH noise can be heard from some unknown location. It is revealed that the city image is a background for the doctor's cell phone, and the YEAH noise was simply the ringtone for it, signifying that he has a call. The doctor, with his sunglasses still attached to his face, places the phone next to his ears and presses a glowing green button to answer it. "Hello?"

The doctor moves the phone away from his face for a moment, placing his other hand on the mic to make sure the person on the other line doesn't hear him. He then looks at Gemini and whispers to him. "My wife." Which the Koopa softly replies with a simple "Ah" and nods his head, motioning his arm in a way that tells the doc that he is fine with him taking that call. The doc nods his head and moves his hand away from the phone. As he begins to move away, Gemini overhears their conversation. "So what do you want honey? What? Your bad knee is acting up AGAIN? Did I do what now? No! I didn't shamelessly make an M.S.I. Delfino reference! You'll do what when I get home? Honey, you ca-" At this point Gemini is unable to hear anymore, but finds himself amused by the silly little acts of the doctor. "Well, laughter is one of the best forms medicine after all...In fact, I think I might be able to walk now..."

Gemini jumps off of the bed, but since his leg is still in pain he jolts back onto the top of the sheets and lets out a muffled scream. Alex, who had gone back to sitting on the bed, ends up falling backwards out of sheer surprise, landing on the floor head first. The doctor pokes his head back into the INN and looks at Gemini, holding his hand over the mic again. "Oh yeah, your leg was pretty beaten up there Lieutenant Gemini. I'm going to have to ask that you rest for three days so it can heal. Anyways..." The doctor continues to talk with his wife, and Gemini, whose eyes are now watering from the pain of his broken leg, is now a LITTLE upset over this news. "THREE DAYS? Shoot, had I known that it was going to take that long, I would've done this a lot sooner..."

Making a singular point out of his fingers, Gemini creates a spark of electricity at the tip, and places said tip onto his broken legs kneecap. After a few modifications to the neurosystem of his muscles the pain has pretty much gone away. Now he gets rid of the spark on his fingertip and jumps back onto the ground again, this time he is able to stand without any pain in his leg. Alex lifts his head up off the ground and looks at Gemini, rubbing the top of his scalp in pain. "You are already feeling better? What the heck did you do?" He asks. The Koopa looks at Alex and lifts his fingertip up again, creating yet another spark on it. "Simple. By retransmitting the neurons from one part of my body to another and then activating the pain receptors to mix up the signals in my body, I was able to make it so even though my body is still wounded, I won't feel any pain at all for the next three days. Which means as long as I don't overdue it, I should be fine."

The boy raises his hand up, finding Gemini's explanation to be a bit...Lacking. "I know barely anything about biology, yet I'm pretty certain that what you just said, once again, didn't make ANY sense whatsoever." The Koopa removes the spark from his finger and folds his arms into his chest, closing his eyes and smirking. "Well, I don't know how humans on Earth perceive their own bodies and mechanisms, but you are on Plit Alex, where hills have eyes and you can walk on Clouds. Simply put, your perception of the human genealogy is clouded to view only one type of reasoning, yet when a new perception or view on the biological traits of a creature shows up, you-" Alex flips himself over the bed using his hands and legs and places one hand over Gemini's mouth. "If you stop using big words and scientific stuff that I don't understand at all, then I'll treat the two of us to breakfast at the nearby BB&Bs (Bullets, Boos, and Breakfasts)" After a moment to comprehend the boy's movements, the Koopa nods his head. Alex removes his hand from Gemini's mouth, and he lets out a deep breath.

"Ok, and just how exactly are you planning on paying for our meal?" Gemini asks with a sigh, shrewdly reminding Alex that he hasn't had the time to acquire any of this Kingdom's currency. "Oh yeah, back when we first arrived, Mario got some extra coins from Peach, who then ended up giving them all to me." "How oddly convenient..." Gemini sarcastically notes, closing his eyelids slightly to show his annoyance at how convenient the situation ended up being for them. "Well, shall we head off then?" Alex says, placing his hand onto Gemini's left shoulder. "Alright. We better move quickly, the others are going to be up soon, and we don't want them running around the entire town in an attempt to find us." The boy nods his head, agreeing with what the Koopa just said. The two of them then casually walk out of the INN, on the way out Gemini turns his head to look at the doctor as he continues to talk on his cell phone, waving his hand back and forth with a freaky sort of grin on his face.

The doctor, baffled by the incomprehensible fact that his patient is up and walking already, falls backwards onto the ground below, his sunglasses falling off his face and landing beside his head. "Twenty years of medical training...wasted!" The doctor says dizzily, his eyes staring blankly up into the skies above. Later on, Gemini and Alex arrive at the BB&B's restaurant, which is shaped to look like a giant Boo made out of logs. They enter through the "Mouth" of the building, which has been cut out of the logs to represent the mouth of the ghastly creature. A long red carpet extends from the dual glass doors at the back of the mouth, acting as a tongue. It only takes a few seconds after entering the building for panic to erupt. Dozens of Toad denizens burst through both the logs walls of the building and the front doors, leaving a single elegantly refined waiter standing at the front to greet the two heroes.

"Ah, you must be Lieutenant Gemini? And...what brings you to our fine eating establishment today?" The waiter says the last sentence nervously, taking his hand and adjusting his suit's collar as sweat trickles down his back. "No need to worry, I'm not here on a mission today." Gemini casually places his left arm behind his back and raises his right hand up beside his face, closing his eyelids and reassuring the waiter that he means no harm to the restaurant. He then motions his hand over to Alex, introducing him to the nervous waiter. "My friend and I simply require some nourishment." The waiter lets out a deep breath, relieved of any stress once he hears this. "Whew...False alarm everyone, he isn't on a mission today." The waiter says, moving his head around to look at the mess that was created by the panicking Toads. The customers and chefs poke their heads through the holes in the walls, and upon hearing what the waiter said they continue with what they were doing before.

"I'm so sorry about that Lieutenant...Shall I get you a seat now?" The waiter picks up two menus, one adult one and one for kids. Alex is a bit peeved by the waiter picking up a Kid's menu, expressing his displeasurement by staring at him with his eyes shut slightly and his face puffed up in the cheeks area. The waiter seems a bit concerned by Alex's actions. "Is your friend ok Lieutenant?" Upon the asking of this question, the Koopa turns his head to look at his companion, who looks quite ridiculous by this point. Gemini's response to this situation is to jab Alex in the stomach with his elbow, causing him to lunge forward and cough out all the air that was built up in his cheeks. Grasping a hold of his neck, Alex tries to prevent himself from coughing any further. Once it is at an end, the boy bonks Gemini on the skull with two fingers. "You don't punch your friends in the gut, Gemini."

After rubbing his sore cheek bones, the Koopa responds rather harshly to Alex's comment. "First of all, it was a jab, not a punch. Second, we aren't in one of those low down fast food restaurants, behave yourself." A guy that works at one of those so-called "Low down fast food restaurants" overhears Gemini's second comment. "Hey!" "My apologies sir, I'm sure you serve your community well by supplying vast quantities of hardened grease to the general public." Gemini says the first part of his sentence loud enough that the man could hear him, but whispers the second part only to himself. "Well, I'm just annoyed by the fact that he is serving me a Kid's menu..." Alex says grumpily, folding his arms into his chest and pouting with his lips. "Aren't you like...11 or something around there?" Gemini responds, confused by the boy's somewhat crazy logic. "So what? Why should I be restricted to only choose foods from one type of menu? If I want to eat something off an adult menu, then by all means I should be allowed to. I would think that any restaurant owner would be ecstatic to earn a little more cash, not pulling off this whole res-"

"If I may interrupt, I would like to point out that we do have the option for Kids to use the adult menus..." The waiter says, putting the Kid's menu away and pulling out a second adult menu. "Now you should seriously consider getting to your seats...We are dragging things out a bit, wouldn't you agree?" The waiter shifts his head to the left, looking at something off in the distance. Gemini and Alex are confused as to what exactly the waiter is looking at, but merely shrug it off as nothing important and decide that it is time to stop fooling around and get ready to sit down and eat breakfast.

Meanwhile, over at the Mario Bros. residence, Driad can be seen sitting in a potted plant that lays off to the side of the porch's staircase. His eyelids have closed, as his body is absorbing the rich nutrients that lie within the grains of soil in the pot. While the sunlight starts beating on his body, his little mouth begins to open out, letting out a small yet peaceful yawn. Opening his eyes to see the world around him today, Driad extends his arms out from beneath the soil and lets out a bigger yawn than before, his eyes mustering up the strength to stay open all the way. Emerging from his confines, he walks up the nearby stairs and enters the Mario Bros.'s house, lumbering across the floor as his body has yet to awaken fully. He enters the brothers' bedroom, where both of the plumbers are lying on their respective red and green beds, dreaming of spaghetti, pipes, and Princesses peacefully. Driad walks over to Mario's bed and grumbles to himself, his eyes almost completely shut.

"WAKE UP!" The Crayzee Dayzee exclaims, his eyes opening fully as his loud voice echoes throughout the room, shocking both brothers out of their dream induced sleeps and causing them to spring right out of their beds, smacking straight up into the ceiling. Driad notices this, and promptly bites onto his left vine in embarrassment. "Ooops..." He says in a nervous tone. The brothers fall from the ceiling, their impact with it having cracked the stone that lies on it. Upon landing back on their beds, the sheets are sent into a state of disarray with them now flying off the beds and onto the ground below. One of them falls over Driad, covering his body up completely. As Mario lifts his head up to see who made that noise, he finds what appears to be a walking bed sheet standing before him. He is about to freak out, but then notices that a vine is sticking out from underneath the left part of the sheet. His face shows signs of annoyance as he lifts his body up off the bed and stares at the Crayzee Dayzee. "Morning Driad..." He says in a grumpy manner.

"Morning~" Driad cheerfully replies, his voice muffled by the sheet being over his body. Luigi gets up off the bed and notices the walking sheet. Unlike Mario though, the man in green immediately assumes that it is a ghost and lets out a shrilled scream. "Luigi, what are you doing? The person under the sheet is Driad, not a ghost." Mario says, rubbing his face with his hands in annoyance. Luigi, embarrassed by the fact that he was scared of peaceful little Driad for a moment, lets out a little laugh and blushes. The flower flings the sheet off from over his body while Mario continues to stare at him. "You shouldn't go waking up people like that Driad." "Sorry Mario..." The Crayzee Dayzee lowers his head in shame. The plumber, feeling a little guilty over berating Driad like that, decides to pat the little flower on the head, hoping that that will cheer him up a bit. "Well, I suppose I was a little rude there Driad..." The flower lifts his head up, and Mario retracts his hand. "Just don't do that very often, and all will be good." "Ok! I got it Mario!" Driad responds, a wide smile appearing on his face.

Back at the restaurant, Alex and Gemini are seen sitting on a couple of polyester chairs, with two dishes filled with pancakes standing before them. By examining the table, one would be able to see a few crumbs spread across the ruby table mat. "Boy, these pancakes sure are good." Alex says, his voice muffled due to the fact that his cheeks are stuffed to the brim with the chewed contents of his meal. He is about to take a fork and knife to the next layer, as Gemini stares on in surprise. "Geez, I guess it was a good thing that we got you an adult menu...You eat like a Lil' Oink!" The Koopa is acting like this due to the fact that while they ordered a stack of seven pancakes, Gemini has only finished two and Alex has finished four, with him now proceeding towards the fifth one. Upon hearing Gemini's slight outburst though, Alex swallows what is in his mouth, the food flowing down his esophagus and forming a bulge on his neck. "Told ya. Little amounts of food don't do jack to me, I have to eat vast quantities or I'll suffer for it later on."

The boy puts down the fork and knife and looks at Gemini from across the table. "By the way, what was up with the customers reactions earlier? What did you do at this restaurant before?" Gemini is seen cutting into his next pancake, taking a small wedge out and moving it towards his mouth while it rests on top of the fork. "Nuclear walking pancakes and legions of undead sausages. You really don't need to know anymore details besides that." He then stuffs the pancake wedge into his mouth and begins chewing. "Nuclear pancakes? Zombie Sausages? That doesn't sound too bad..." Alex picks his utensils back up and continues eating. "Trust me..." Gemini says, his voice muffled due to the food in his mouth. He takes a pause in his sentence so he can swallow, then wipes the bottom of his mouth with a napkin. "It WAS bad..." Continuing to eat the pancakes stacked before him, the Koopa mutters something else to himself. "And that's not even getting into the flying laser firing bacon..." "What was that?" Alex asks. "Nothing..." Gemini quickly responds, continuing to eat his pancakes.

An hour or two later, we find Geno standing in the center of Toad Town, his arms folded across his chest in the normal manner, his mind deep in thought, and his body remaining motionless. Driad and the Mario Bros. eventually show up from the left side of town. Geno's wooden eyelids creak open, his head making a creaking noise as it turns around to take a look at the approaching heroes. "Well, it's about time..." He says, showing annoyance at the fact that they arrived as lately as they did. "You haven't been waiting too long, have you Geno?" Driad asks. "…I've been waiting all night for you guys to wake up so we could continue moving, seeing as I had nothing to do." Geno turns his entire body around as the rest of the heroes nervously move their hands around, trying to come up with a way to explain their lateness to the star warrior.

"Where did Mallow run off to?" Luigi asks, attempting to change the subject to avoid further embarrassment. "I have no clue...He was watching over Alex and Gemini, but those two have disappeared as well." "No they haven't, because there they are!" Driad points a vine at the direction of the Star Gate that leads to Peach's ruined Castle and the Shooting Star Summit. Walking towards the center of the town is Alex and Gemini. "Well, you two appear to be doing well." Mario points out, surprised by the fact that Gemini is able to walk after the damage that his leg sustained. "Yeah, the muscles in my leg healed much faster than I thought they would." The Koopa motions his hand towards his legs, pointing to the upper half that was damaged in battle.

"So, what about Mallow?" Driad asks. "Well, maybe he-" "SORRY I'M LATE GUYS!" Geno is interrupted by the piercing sound of Mallow's voice. The heroes look towards the south end of town, and find Mallow running towards them. Once he stops near the group he begins to explain just where he was. "I was busy asking E. Gadd to make something for me. After that I ended up wandering around town for about five hours, played poker with the whale, and stuffed daises into my ears." Everyone else just stares at the cloud Prince with completely dumbfounded looks on their face. "Did I mention that E. Gadd gave me an experimental no-sleep candy?" Mallow's eyes are now bulging out of their sockets, and his voice is becoming more sing-song with each word he speaks. "I am just so WIIIIIIIDE awake!"

Gemini gives an annoyed glare at Alex, turns to look at Mallow, walks over to him, and gives him a light slap across the face. He then walks back to where he was standing before, folds his arms in front of his chest, and watches as Mallow shakes his head back and forth. Snapping out of his sugar induced trance, the Nimbusian wonders just where he is at and what he was doing for the past few hours. His eyes have also shrunk back into their original state. "Huh, what, where am I?" He asks in bewilderment while scratching the top of his fluffy cloud head. "You ate some experimental candy that E. Gadd made that would allow you to stay up all night long. I guess your body just reacted badly to the sugar." Gemini points out, his stoic expression hiding an underlying concern for Mallow's situation.

"There was sugar in that candy?" The cloud Prince says, tilting his head in confusion. Alex just looks surprised at Mallow's response. "Well...of course there was. Most candy usually do have sugar..." Tilting his head slightly to the left, Alex wonders just how Mallow could not have known about this fact. "Have you ever eaten candy before?" Mallow rapidly shakes his head back and forth. "Nope. Nimbusians aren't allowed to eat candy. It's been that way for fifty some years, ever since a Nimbusian ate a ton of candy and turned into a giant yellow cloud. He emitted a potent candy toxin that is harmful to all creatures save for the Yoshi species." "What was this guy's name?" Mario inquires. "I think he ended up roaming the skies during his banishment and called himself...Ummm, I think it was Cloud n' Candy or something. Don't know, no one has ever encountered the guy since he was banished from Nimbus Land."

Alex flinches once he hears the name of the cloud creature. Having played enough Mario games while on Earth, he knew just who Cloud n' Candy was, and just who exactly encountered and finished him off. Seeing as how he was a fellow Nimbusian though, he didn't feel the need to let Mallow know about this fact. "Huh, interesting." The boy thus says in a particularly dull tone. "Ok, now that all of us here, can we stop wasting time and get a move on?" Gemini asks, his voice showing annoyance of the fact that the group is wasting time with such trivial matters unrelated to their quest. "Well EXCUSE me Gemini, but we have plenty of time to talk. Besides, what harm is there in doing this?" Alex motions his hand towards his chest, bumping it with his fist to sort of mock his friend for his serious attitude.

Gemini opens his left eyelid and gives a long angry stare at the boy. "Maybe you have forgotten Alex, but we fought both Joe Dark and Fawful yesterday. The two of them worked for CACKLETTA. You know, the big bad guy of our little quest? Joe Dark has been taken care of, but Fawful escaped. For all we know, he may have just been spying on us so Cackletta can know just exactly who is among our ranks, so she herself could ambush us at the next temple, and with the knowledge of our abilities she might be able to successfully defeat each and every one of us!" Gemini takes a deep breath to calm himself down, closing his eyelids and thinking peaceful thoughts. A quick cough emerges from his mouth, and he places his fist on it to prevent any germs from spreading. "Point is Alex, it would be in our best interest to get moving. There will be plenty of time for talking after the seven stones are acquired and the reincarnation process is completed."

"Fine...Fine..." Alex says, rolling his eyes around due to how much of a hard ass Gemini is being. He then turns his attention towards Mario. "So, where is the next temple located at?" Mario pulls out the iGadd from within his overall pocket and taps a few buttons to pop the map up on screen. Holding the device out in front of him, the group is able to see the location of the Frozen Palace. "Where the heck is that?" Geno asks. "By the looks of the location, it seems to me that the next temple would be on top of a mountain that lies beyond the Crystal Palace in the Shiver Mountains region." Luigi points out, giving a nice long stare at the icy mountains that pop out of the screen. "So, we will need to take a trip through the Sewers to reach Shiver City..." Alex states, rubbing his chin with his mind deep in thought.

"Yep." Mario says, shutting off the iGadd with the push of a button and tucks it away safely into his overalls. "I know a shortcut, so shall we get a move on?" The heroes nod in unison, agreeing with what the plumber had to say. Walking down to the southern end of town, Mario leads the heroes to a small blue house where they enter through the oak door and find a single green pipe lying by itself inside. They jump down it, traveling through the wet metallic corridor at a breakneck speed. At the very end of the pipe they find themselves in the dark damp sewers, whose walls are made of bricks and drops of sewage waste are dripping out of the cracks. There are pipes hanging from the ceiling, and a few boxes litter the area. Looking around in disgust, Gemini finds himself wanting to get out quickly. "These sewers are a perfect example of the filthiness that infects this planet..."

"Well, some creatures do thrive in this dark environment." Mario points out. "True, but those creatures are vicious and not well-mannered in the slightest." The Koopa responds, thinking about the Dark Koopas that thrive in the sewers, ashamed to be related to those wretched scumbags. "Well, we shouldn't run into any of them. The pipe to Shiver City is only a couple of rooms away. So let's-a go!" Exiting through the door to the right, the heroes travel through the sewers without running into any resistance at all, eventually ending up at a room that has a large blue iron door on a ledge. The only way that they can reach the door is to use the four blocks suspended in mid-air to cross over to the other side. Jumping on top of the ledge that lies to the left of the block bridge, the heroes get ready to cross over to the other side.

They actually have no trouble jumping across the blocks, save for Mallow, who as we have noted before cannot jump very well. Due to this, Alex has to lift Mallow off the ground and fly him over to the other side. Dropping down onto the ground on the other side of the gap, the group gather around again and push open the iron door that lies before them. A loud, echoing creak fills the quiet air as they open it, and what lies in front of their view is a small squared in room with a single green pipe. Jumping and traveling through the twisted corridors of the metallic pipe, they end up arriving in a rectangular room. Off to their sides are two separate bodies of water, both topped off with a shining coat of ice. The brick walls are solidified by a thin sheet of ice, which causes a cold atmosphere to hover across the room. In front of them lies a blue pipe, whose rim is covered in ice.

"That's the pipe we need to take." Mario says, moving his hand up to the point where it's lined directly with his face and taking his pointer finger to point at the pipe, squinting his eyes in the face of this sudden cold wave. Turning his head around to see where his friend is pointing at, Alex notices the expression on his face. "You ok Mario?" "Haven't been in the cold for quite some time. My body just needs to adjust to the temperature again..." He responds, his voice shivering as he speaks. Placing his hand back near his side, the plumber starts walking towards the blue pipe, as do the rest of the group a few seconds after that. A powerful force of magic breaks our heroes down into little pieces, dragging them into the pipe and sending them flying through a vortex of majesty so they enter out from a pipe in the center of Shiver City.

Upon coming out of the pipe and being put back together, Alex looks at it, confused by the events that just transpired, and gives it a light kick. After the rest of the group emerges they oversee their surroundings, getting a grip on just where they are at this time. A few log cabins litter the snowy town as some short and stubby blue penguins walk around, their bodies covered by a variety of clothing ranging from scarves to woolly hats. Blankets of snow cover the ground around them, being so thick that they reach the tops of the heroes' feet. Geno finds himself shivering like mad, which is a strange sensation for him to feel. "W-w-w-what is w-w-w-wrong with my b-b-b-b-body?" He is unable to say a coherent sentence, wrapping his arms around his body to keep himself warm. The rest of the group is completely unaffected by the weather surrounding them.

"Don't know. Perhaps your wood can't handle the cold?" Mallow says, just as confused as Geno is about this situation. The star warrior weakly lifts his hand up and points at Driad, unable to keep it straight. "What about h-h-h-h-him? I thought plants were i-i-i-i-incapable of surviving in t-t-t-the cold..." Driad gives a few reactive blinks, then blankly points to his face. "Me? Well, I've never been affected by the cold before. Then again, the Osagi Woods was never hit with snow during any winter seasons." "That is t-t-t-true." Geno says, folding his hand back into his body to warm himself up. After rubbing his chin in thought, Mario snaps his fingers and comes up with a solution to his friend's problem. "Be right back." He then scampers off to the nearby item shop, as the rest of the heroes stand around looking at each other in confusion.

Less than a minute later, Mario emerges from the item shop and runs back over to the group, standing in front of Alex with fog emerging from his mouth. "You got those coins from Peach still?" Immediately picking up what Mario says, Alex starts fidgeting around, his hands shaking nervously. He used all the coins to buy breakfast for Gemini and himself, and now that Mario needs them...Noticing his partner's situation, the Lieutenant decides to change the subject so he doesn't get caught. "Mario, why do you need the money?" Tilting his head diagonally out of curiosity, Gemini's words come out of his mouth naturally so he can avoid tipping Mario off of the fact that Alex spent the money. "Well, I was going to by a type of coat for Geno so he would be able to stay warm. Sadly, I don't have enough coins."

At this point the boy begins to sweat from the forehead, with Mario turning his head slightly to notice this. "Why are you acting so nervously Alex?" He asks, starting to suspect that Alex has spent all the money. Then Gemini raises a hand up, a credit card clenched between his fingers. "Don't worry about it Mario, if you're out of money, I'll just use my credit card to buy the coat." Pointing one eye at Alex and another at Gemini, Mario is a bit weary of his sudden willingness to pay for the coat, but merely chalks it up as generosity brought on by their time together. "Very well." Gemini walks towards the item shop, giving a "Your welcome" wink to Alex, puzzling him immensely.

After another minute or two, Gemini walks out of the store with a black coat gripped in his hands. Walking over to where Geno is shivering at, Gemini lifts the coat up over his body. Looking up to the see the warm fibers of the coat, the star warrior weakly lifts his arms up above his head, allowing Gemini to slip the coat on over his body. As it is covered, a warm sensation begins to seep into his wooden arms, flowing through his body and making him feel alive again. Even though he has no nerves, the sensation just feels natural to him, and as the coat covers his body completely he folds his arms back into his chest in the same position that they are usually in. Nodding his head, Geno is ready to continue onward. "Alright guys, sorry for inconveniencing our journey. I am ready to move onward." Gemini pats the doll on the shoulder, glad that he is back to his normal self again.

The heroes begin to move on through the town, but Alex stops Gemini in his tracks by grabbing onto his left shoulder. The Koopa turns his head to stare at the boy, whose cheeks are now red with embarrassment. "Listen...Gemini..." He mutters, his words coming out slowly but with a kindly tone to them. "Yes?" Gemini replies, knowing full well just what Alex is going to say next. "Look, you didn't have to do that. I would've told Mario the truth, he wouldn't have cared either way." The Koopa closes his eyes and shakes his head, brushing Alex's hand off of his body and turning around, pointing a thumb up near his body. "Rule 17, Article 15 of the M.S.I. 'When given the chance, one must repay an act of kindness that another has shown, no matter the circumstances or reasons.'" Frowning upon hearing this, Alex thinks that the only reason Gemini did what he did was because he was bound by honor. Sensing his worriment, the Koopa decides to re-assure him with the following.

"Despite that rule, that's not the only reason I helped you out." Placing his hand on his heart, Gemini looks up at the boy with his feet placed firmly onto the ground. "I may be honor bound, but that does not mean that I have lost any semblance of my emotions. Even though I come off as a bit of a jerk at times, I mean the best for not just you, but the entire world I live in. I like you Alex, despite all the harm that befalls those around you, you continue to push on, never giving in. I know plenty of people who would've been broken by the events that you've seen, and that just makes me feel all the more proud to see you do what you do. And not just you, in each and every one of us there is something I like. The Mario Bros.' Courage, Driad's innocence, Mallow's dedication, and Geno's calm demeanor. All of us are different from each other, but that's the reason that we are able to work together."

Pointing his hand up towards the sky, snowflakes begin to fall from above, landing on the palm of his hand as he gets ready to speak again. "Rule 27, Article 5. 'When working together, one will find that sometimes the best partnerships are between those who have little in common with each other.'" Alex turns his head back around again, his face showing signs of happiness after hearing Gemini compliment him like that, and also for showing a softer side of his personality. He is about to reply to his comment, when Driad calls out to them. "HEY! GET YOUR REARS IN GEAR YOU TWO, WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!" Upset that their somewhat heartwarming moment was interrupted, both Gemini and Alex let out a cold sigh, and run off to catch up with the rest of the group as they begin to exit the town.

The heroes travel through the snow free paths of the Shiver Snowfield. Off to the side of them are a few trees, the green leaves weighed down by the amount of snow placed upon them. The trip through the pathway is short, as they soon arrive at the location of the entryway to the Shiver Mountains, which is guarded by a grand total of six snowmen, each one wearing a blue hat on their heads and a scarf around their necks. Driad feels an odd vibe coming from them. "Are those Snowmen alive or something?" Mario nonchalantly responds with a single "Yes", which does little to calm the flower's concerns. "That would explain why their eyes seem to be following us..." They then walk through the hole in the wall, with Driad nervously shivering due to the Snowmen's eyes following him as he enters.

Now walking through the frozen tunnels that connect the fields to the mountain, the heroes take the time to look at the icy stalagmites that hang from the ceilings, and also notice the lack of the usual wildlife in the area. "No Gulpits and Frost Pirahnas? How suspicious..." Gemini notes. "Don't tempt fate Gemini." Geno replies, pointing a finger towards the Koopa to berate him. But it turns out that Gemini's tempting of fate actually does nothing to impede their progress. They emerge from the tunnel and enter the mountain range as the blue skies above them begin to be covered by some white clouds. Then they walk through the mountain range, climbing up the crystal staircases and walking the icy pathways until they reach the entrance of the Crystal Palace.

"Well, we've reached the Crystal Palace...But this isn't the Palace that we need to enter..." Mallow says, looking around for any signs or hints to the Frozen Palace's location. Mario pulls out his iGadd and opens the World Map up. A red glowing "M" beeps to show where they are now, and a green glowing dot marks where the Frozen Palace is. Assuming the calculations are correct, the Frozen Palace is right above them. Putting the iGadd away, the plumber raises his hand to point up towards the sky. "We need to go up." The rest of the group raises their head to look at the mountain, seeing nothing but clouds above them. "Ummm, Mario. How do you expect us to go any farther up the mountain?" Gemini asks. As if in response to his question, his cell phone begins to go off. Pulling it out of his shell, he clicks it open to answer it. "Hello?"

_"Lieutenant, you've reached the Crystal Palace I assume?" _A familiarly gruff voice says over the phone. "Commander? How do you kno-" _"Tracking beacon, never mind the details right now. To get to the Frozen Palace, go to the edge of the crystal stairs that are near your location and look to the right." _Gemini is slightly distract by the sound of a jet engine going off in the background of the phone call. "Sir, what is that I am hearing in the background?" _"I'm in the Generator Room. I can't really talk much, just needed to let you know that since I noticed that you were close to the next temple. Ciao." _A dial tone then buzzes through the phone line due to Alpha hanging up. Tucking the phone back into his shell, Gemini notes on how oddly his Commander was behaving. "Well that was...strange..." "Was that your superior officer?" Luigi asks, Gemini responding to this comment with a nod. "He said to check to the right of the crystal stairs. Considering how much of the planet he checks per day, it would be best to give it a shot."

Walking back over to the crystal stairs, the heroes take a peek to the right of where they stand. Standing in plain sight is a flight of stairs that leads further up the mountain. Perfectly carved into the side of the mountain, these stairs are smoothly textured with plenty of crystal tiles. "Well I'll be darned." Geno says quietly, amazed by the existence of such a thing. "Well, shall we ascend?" Mario asks. Ready to brave the dangers of the next temple, the heroes all nod their heads in agreement. Jumping onto the staircase, they begin their ascension past the clouds and into the deep inclines of the mountains above. As they continue to climb, the air begins to become more solidified, as the pressure of getting closer to the atmosphere begins to take hold on our group.

"Augh, what is with the popping sound in my ears?" Driad moans, placing his hands onto the sides of his head in an attempt to stop the noises, but to no avail. "Well, we are many feet off the ground. Since we are getting closer and closer to the atmosphere, our bodies begin to feel the pressure of space itself and thus causes our ear drums to start popping. It's annoying, I know, but you shouldn't have to deal with it for long." Mallow says, waving his hand around while talking. "WHAT? I couldn't hear that WITH MY EARS COVERED UP AND THIS POPPING SOUND PESTERING THE HECK OUT OF ME!" Driad exclaims. Mallow then uses his right hand to smack his forehead, and instead of bothering to explain the situation to Driad again he just decides to continue walking up the stairs. The rest of the group doesn't seem to be having a hard time when it comes to dealing with the atmospheric pressure, but that just means that they have to continue to listen to Driad whine about the popping sounds until they reach the very top of the stairway, where he finally removes his hands from his face and looks happy again. "Ah, that's more like it."

The rest of the group plugged their ears to block out Driad, but the Crayzee Dayzee assumes that they are doing this because now THEIR ears are making the popping noises. "Awww come on now, not you guys too..." Driad's body shakes a bit, as he begins to feel a warm presence in his body. "What the heck..." This warm feeling goes away, only for it to come back in an instant. Then he begins to feel a heartbeat in his chest, a small pumping noise indicating that blood is being created inside of him. "A heartbeat? ...But I'm...a plant?" The flower's eyes bulge, as the black colors in his pupils begin to be flushed out of his sockets, replacing them with ghastly white ones. His body becomes motionless, with not a single muscle moving. His next action of falling face first onto the ice covered ground is noticed instantly by Alex, who unplugs his ears and rushes to his aid, picking his limp body off the ground and flipping him around, his mind going into a state of complete shock when he sees Driad's whitened eyes.

"Driad?" Alex asks quietly, hoping that his friend is just fooling around and is not really dead. He gives the body a brief shake, but all he hears is the sound of the leaves on his body rustling against the air. "Guys! Something is wrong with Driad!" Alex exclaims, speaking loudly enough that the rest of the group is able to hear them, despite their ears being plugged and their attention directed towards the Palace in front of them. As they turn around to take a look at what the boy has to show them, a massive blizzard blows through them. When Alex hears the arctic gales blowing behind him, he turns around. What he sees before him is even more shocking than the fact that Driad fainted. From Mario to Geno, all the heroes have been completely frozen in separate blocks of ice, their frozen bodies now in the same position that they were in as they turned around. What scares Alex is the fact that the heroes look to still be alive, yet seem to be unable to move, breath, or perform any action for that matter. Placing Driad safely on the ground beside him, the boy walks over to the blocks of ice and gives them a small tap with his knuckles.

"I'm...All alone now." Alex laments this matter, worried now for his own safety in the face of such adversity. He is on his guard though, since the fact that the heroes were frozen could quite possibly mean that the guardian is nearby. And for all it's worth, he will have wished that he was wrong. "How sad, I seemed to have missed one." A fairly British voice echoes throughout the skies. Emerging from the thinly veiled fog that covers the palace is a towering golem made out of ice. Each section of his body is made out of hardened spheres of ice, and as for his facial features? He has one human-like eye in the center of his face. Fear overcomes Alex, as the eye itself is not only a bloody green color, but he recognizes that it is made out of flesh and blood. "You're the ouside guardian of the Frozen Palace...And you did this to my friends, didn't you?" The boy rises up off the ground, staring up at the eye of the golem with vigor. The golem begins clapping it's spherical hands together.

"Bravo, you are quite observant, much smarter than the other fools who have ever attempted to breach the perimeters of the palace. Then again..." The golem stops clapping and a snake-like black pupil emerges from the center of the flesh, causing green blood to spew out and cover the blocks of ice that the heroes are trapped in. "Not very many have even lived to SEE just what I look like. Out of the 500 people that have ever climbed the grand stairway to the palace, only 6 have ever come back down...The rest of them?" The golem waves his hand towards the fog, causing it to disperse in all directions. What Alex sees next both shocks and disgusts him. Lying around the entrance to the Frozen Palace are a grand total of 494 ice blocks, each one containing it's own creature that has been deep freezed by the golem and stacked up into the shape of a giant wall.

"You monster!" Alex exclaims, gritting his teeth at the revolting actions that this creature has done. "You think you can create such disgusting pieces of work by deep freezing such poor creatures while they are still alive?" The golem is amused by Alex's mediocrity and lack of understanding, so he decides to tell him off in the most polite way he can think of. "Disgusting? I find my wall to be a work of art...I guess you are incapable of seeing that my art breathes a new meaning into this dull world around us. Not only that, but these creatures that had come here knew what they were up against. The quest to gain the Overlord's power is not a game boy! To make it this far means that one will have already traversed a grand total of five trap and guardian filled temples! If you do not understand what you have gotten yourself into after making it this far, then you are nothing more than a fool."

The golem extends it's hand out to reach for Alex. "Enough talk, I will freeze you over quickly...You shall be block number 500, so consider yourself lucky..." The boy has gone silent, his head drooped into his chest, as the shadows from his hair cover his eyes. The golem is unable to comprehend just what emotion the boy is showing at this time, and becomes curious. "What's the matter boy? You accepting the harsh truth of this journey? After all, there is quite literally nothing you can do now." Alex lifts his head up slightly, and the golem sees an unnatural grin across his face. In the face of danger, Alex still refuses to give up. Even if he is the only one capable to fighting. "Actually, there is one thing I can do..." Alex raises his head up all the way, his eyes burning with the flames of determination, and he punches the palm of his right hand with his left hand which has been curled into the shape of a fist. "I'm going to kick. Your. ASS."

"Excuse m-" The golem is interrupted, as the boy leaps into the air and delivers a powerful punch right into the eye of the beast, causing him to tumbling backwards in pain, his hand covering the bulging membrane up. "AUGH! YOU BLOODY FOOL!" Regaining his balance, the golem removes his hand from his eye, which is now dripping blood from the corneas. Alex is floating in the air cracking his knuckles, with a "You are dead" look smeared across his smug face. "Abandon your arrogance boy, your one lucky shot is all that you are going to GET!" The golem stops the bleeding in his eyes by freezing the hole that the blood is emerging from, which covers his eyes up with a thin layer of ice. Alex then flies at the golem and begins to fight.

Meanwhile, inside the compounds of Driad's head, the unconscious flower is experiencing feelings that he has never felt before, but at the same time they feel familiar to him. "A heartbeat...This warm and fuzzy feeling in my head..." His voices echoes through the blank reaches of his mind. "It's all so new to me, but at the same time...It's familiar to me...Is this..." Driad's thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a familiar, warming voice in the back of his mind. "Wake up, and meet the world around you...Driad."

The flower slowly opens his eyelids, a massive ray of sunlight causing him to recoil in shock and blink his eyes repeatedly until his pupils can adjust. When he has done so though, his vision is fuzzy, and his surroundings are colored in black and white. "Where am I?" He thinks to himself, surprised by the fact that the words didn't emerge from his mouth. "I...can't speak? Why does my body feel so heavy...and so...fuzzy?" Driad looks around, and sees himself back in the Osagi Woods. It is at this point that he realizes that he is still knocked out, and he is subconsciously remembering the events of the past. "..." "Is he awake?" A female voice says, the nurturing tone showing concern for someone in the area. Against his will, the flower's point of view in this dream is shifted so that he is staring at a cloaked lady and a cloaked man. "Oh, he looks ferocious. Are you sure it's a good idea to have someone like him guard a temple this early on in the cycle?"

The cloaked man lets out a small laugh, and pats the lady on the shoulder. "Now now d...I can assure you that Dr..." Driad's mind cannot make out entirely what is being said. "I know that his creation was decided by the Gaiden Plant, but doesn't that just mean that he'l-" "No, he may look dangerous, but I can assure you that-" The flower's vision blanks out for a few seconds, and when he can see again a small light orb is floating in front of him. "Greetings young one. My name is..." Driad can hear a growling noise, assumedly coming from himself. The next scene that appears in his mind is that of a few vines chasing the orb through the air. "Sir, help me out here!" The man lets out another laugh, as does the lady. "See? He's quite the playful creature. He'll only act ferocious while fighting those who come to enter the temple."

"Well, on second thought, I guess Dr...is quite cute..." The lady kneels down onto the grassy ground, and extends her hand out to pet Driad on the head. The lady hums a little melody, but the scene then switches to both the man and lady walking away from the forest. "Take care now Driad. I'm counting on you to protect my legacy." The man says, his voice showing signs of sadness for having to leave Driad behind. As the two figures leave through the thickets of the forest, the flower can hear a tearful howling noise, as whoever he was before watches his own creator vanish without a trace...Then his mind goes completely blank, with some static covering up his view...

Back in the world of the living, Driad's white eyes become black again, and his body jolts off the ground in an instant. His "new" heart begins to beat rapidly, and the Crayzee Dayzee places his hand onto his chest to feel every last one of those beats. "I'm alive...No, I've always been alive...But up until now I've been incomplete...Now, I can say for certain, that I am-" Driad's interrupted by the loud sound of the battle between the Ice Golem and Alex. The Golem has just now finished suplex'ing the boy into the ground, creating a crater from the impact. Alex is now KO'd, and the Ice Golem is about ready to turn him into an ice block with a flick of the wrist. "You've fought hard, so out of respect you shall be the crown jewel of my wall!"

A single leaf hits his forehead, causing the golem to look up. Driad is standing on top of the blocks that our heroes are frozen in. "Another warrior wishes to toss his life aw-" Before he finishes the golem recognizes just who the person standing before him is. "Driad? But that's impossible, you shouldn't be alive if people have made it to this temple before!" The flower warrior closes his eyes, finding some truth in the Golem's words. "You are right, I shouldn't be alive. I lost my former guardian powers, my memories, and all that made me who I was before. I thought all that stuff about my past was unnecessary for me to live, and that I could live in the present as a new person."

Driad points his vines at the golem, and opens his eyes again with a certain ferocity burning inside of him. "But that was impossible! Like a ghost the past haunted me, and because of that I was unable to fight to my full potential! I helped my friends, and they helped me! They never shunned me for who I am, nor did they ever give up on me when the times were tough." The golem is disgusted. "You spout such mockery. You work to protect those who wish to steal the Overlord's power-" "You be quiet!" Driad tightly clenches his fist. "You've become so blind. The Overlord created us to protect his legacy. Instead of doing that, all you guardians have been doing is brutally harming any who appear. Instead of allowing the Overlord to be reborn like he wanted, you've just been forcing the process to be suspended for two thousand years, which in turn has caused the deaths of more people than there needed to be! The only thing that all of you are protecting is your selfish pride!" "You're a hypocrite for spouting such lies! You of all people know that!" The golem says, going into a fit of rage over Driad's actions.

"Yes, I know very well just what I have done in the past. I don't know exactly how many people I wrongly killed or harmed...But I will try to make up for that now in any way that I possibly can! That boy you defeated just now is going to become the Overlord's reincarnation! HE will inherit the powers and the knowledge needed to create a better future for all worlds! For my friends, my creator, the world I live in, and the sacrifices that have been made in the past, present, AND even the future, you will experience the pain and ferocity of nature itself!" The golem laughs at the pitiful concept of him being defeated by such a little flower. "And just how exactly do you plan on doing that, Driad?" The golem's cocky expression suddenly begins to fade, as he notices Driad's eyes becoming a yellowish color, and groves of moss growing all around his body. "Oh yeah, by the way..." The flower lets out a cocky little grin with fangs now formed in his mouth. "I remembered EVERYTHING involving my past..." As the moss begins to cover his face up completely, the screen fades to black, followed by a loud howl echoing throughout the skies.

_Next Time: Showdown between Guardians, and the King's return._


	27. Chapter 27

**Author's Note:  
><strong>

Woo-hoo! This chapter here marks the halfway point of this tale!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 27: Frozen Forthcoming I, The Lonesome Wolf<strong>

As the sly smirk appears on Driad's lips, the Golem becomes bewildered by his comment. "You...regained more than just your memories?" Tilting his head back and letting out a small laugh, the Golem thinks of his former fellow guardian's claim as nothing more than a ludicrous concept. "Impossible. When a guardian loses their position of power over their respective temple to that of another creature, they permanently lose their memories and their original forms." As blades of grass begin to pop out from under the fibers of Driad's vines, the flower shakes his head at the ignorance that the Golem is showing. "You know, the basic idea of that rule has always bugged me. How could it ever have been proven that a guardian could never regain their powers or memories?" Driad's eyes begin to split open, revealing some rounded pupils on the inside, as his eyelids start to take the shape of an oval. The new color of his eyes is revealed to be that of a dark yellow color.

"The rules and restrictions that come with being a guardian has been programmed into each and every one of the guardian's minds. You think the Overlord would actually lie to us after entrusting us to guard his temples? The monuments of his grand legacy?" Driad thrusts his head out forward, moss beginning to form around his face to take the shape of a wolf's head. "OPEN YOUR EYES! True as it may be that he created us, true as it may be that he told us our mission in life, but you have misinterpreted the words he spoke and confused them for something else! The Overlord wanted us to protect the boy who will become his reincarnation, not protect the temples themselves. As I said before, all you guardians have done is delayed the rebirth of our creator, for your own selfish reasons!"

The golem's pupil shrinks to a thinner size, his limit for patience reaching it's peak. Raising his hand up behind his massive head, the golem is ready to strike Driad down. "Enough out of you! You are a defective guardian! I'll do our creator a favor and squash you now!" The flower warrior does not flinch at the sight of the Golem's rage, as his body is almost completely engulfed in blades of grass and patches of moss. All he does is stand motionless, watching as the Golem slams his hand down on top of him, the impact of it sending clouds of frozen dust flying around him. Looking satisfied at the thought of protecting his temple, the Golem's eye re-adjusts back into a normal state. Before he can move his hand away from the top of the ice blocks, he feels a sharp blade cutting through his palm. Wincing in pain, the guardian moves his eye down to look at his hand, only to find that it has already been shredded to nothing more than a cloud of icy dust.

Adjusting his vision to see through the particles, the Golem is shocked to find a creature made out of grass and moss standing firmly on top of the blocks. With jagged claws made out of solid oak wood, powerful looking back legs and piercing yellow eyes, this creature largely resembles a werewolf. The feral beast shifts it's eyes to the left, staring at the nervous Golem with a killer intent stemming from the pupils. Not knowing the identity of the creature, the Golem's emotions change from nervousness to fear as a familiar voice leaves the fanged lips of the beast. "You REALLY should not have done that." Even with it's now growling tone, the creature was recognized by the guardian as Driad. When the ice dust fully clears, one could get a much better look at what he now looked like.

On top of the features mentioned before, one could see a large patch of leaves that covers his body from his neckline to the front of his legs. His face is sleek, but at the same time there are a couple of rough spots that show off his fierce demeanor. His fangs are made out hard white seeds, and his ears are made out of two halves of a walnut shell. "Now, for the rest of you." Vanishing into the wind with a quick blur appearing where he once stood, Driad is ready to attack another part of the Golem. Frantically moving his head around in an attempt to out just where the beast has gone, the Golem is unable to properly defend himself, thus allowing Driad to shred through his other hand with ease. The dust that remains of his other hand flies forward, being carried by the force of his movements. Driad then appears in front of the Golem, his right claw outstretched beside him, with the other claw resting calmly on his respective leg. Twisting his head around so his right eye stares blankly at the golem, the warrior waits patiently for it's next move. "You think I am done for just because I have lost both of my hands? I fully control the cold weather around me with my mind alone!"

Moving his right claw towards the tip of his mouth, Driad's fanged grin shows that he has a plan to deal with that. "Well in that case..." With a flick of the wrist and a drop of a leaf, the flower warrior vanishes and reappears behind the titanic creature. Before it could even react, it's legs have been slashed into nothing but dust. Driad has his arms brandished out in front of him, both of them crossed together to form the shape of an "X". Without any way to support itself, gravity takes hold of the Golem's body and brings it crashing onto the ground below. Impacting with the ground, the ice that forms the bottom half of his body crumbles away into nothing more than dust. Opening his closed eye, the golem stricken with disbelief due to the fact that Driad, the first outer guardian, is destroying him so easily. Looking around for a way to make the beast submit, the Golem notices Alex's unconscious body lying in the crater. With his eye widening in tune with his malicious thoughts, he doesn't notice that the boy is slowly starting to awaken.

"Very well, guardian Driad. If you are so willing to defy the Overlord's will, THEN I SHALL ERASE THE VERY THING THAT YOU HAVE DECIDED T-UGAAAHH!" The golem grimaces, red blood sliding down the front of his face. From behind the head, Driad has pierced through the guardian's protection by extending one of his wooden claws so it goes through and scrapes the very top of the golem's eye. Letting out a little growl of anger, Driad retracts his claw and begins to walk towards the paralyzed head of the golem, the intent to kill emerging from his soul. "You will do NOTHING. Not now, not ever AGAIN!" Folding his claws back behind his body, the out of control Driad grits his fangs and lunges the claws out at the now lifeless head of the golem, using the sharp edges of his claws to literally rip through the ice like it was nothing more than a piece of paper. A few seconds of turning the ice into dust ends with only the lifeless eye remaining. It's fleshy remain plops down onto the ground, it's pupil slowly becoming white in the presence of the natural cold. Driad stands in front of it, claw raised to impale the eye and finish the monster off for good.

"Die..." He says, a cold tone overcoming his formerly innocent voice. As he lunges his claw down to end this, he finds his actions stopped by Alex, whose hand is gripped onto his shoulder and his strength preventing Driad from moving forward. The flower warriors turns his head around, his eyes staring at Alex in surprise. As the boy's eyes look like they are on the verge of tears, he shakes his head back and forth, not only upset that Driad was about to perform overkill on the beast, but also fear stricken at the thought of his friend losing himself while in this form. "That's ENOUGH Driad, if you even go by that name anymore." Alex's voice pierces the beast's rampaging mind, and it proves to be more than enough for him to be able to pull himself together, lowering his claw away from the eye and letting it limp near his body. The boy lets go of Driad, as he lets out a quiet whimper of sadness. The plant based materials that covered his body retract, leaving him in his "normal" flowery state. Looking at the vine hand that had been his weapon of destruction, Driad sees little drops of blood splattered around.

"Alex...How long have you been awake for?" Driad quietly asks, lamenting the actions that he had taken against the Ice Golem. "I awoke when you pierced the Golem's eye...Was that, your true form?" Underneath his words, Driad can sense the concern in Alex's voice. But not even he is able to come up with an answer to his question. "I-I don't know...When my body went out of commission earlier, I remembered the day that I was created...After that, I was somehow able to regain my powers...I theorize that it has something to do with the fact that I've hung around the Element Stones for as long as I have...But..." "And what about your desire to mercilessly end the life of that Golem?" Clenching his bloody vines into the shape of a fist, Driad turns around and looks at Alex, his eyes slowly regaining that innocent feel. "Alex, please do me a favor. I don't know if that aggression streak was a one time thing or not, so until I can figure out just what is wrong with me, I don't want the others knowing about what went down."

The boy crosses his arms and thinks things over for a moment. Then he suddenly realizes something. "OH! The others are still trapped in the ice blocks!" Driad tilts his head to the side, looking over Alex's shoulders and noticing that the ice blocks are starting to melt. "I wouldn't worry about them." The boy thus turns around and sees the melting ice. "So, do you promise Alex?" Alex sighs, deciding that he really has no choice in the matter. "I won't tell a soul. Just make sure this doesn't happen again." Driad nods his head in agreement. After sitting down on the cold tiles for a few minutes, the ice that the heroes were trapped in thaws out completely. The first thing they do is react to the sudden decrease in temperature by wrapping their arms around their bodies to warm themselves up. With a coat already wrapped around him though, the only reason Geno decides to fold his arms is to enjoy the sudden reversal of roles. "Heheh..."

"Not f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-funny Geno." Mallow mutters under the chill of his breath. After a few more minutes of snuggling themselves, the heroes have regulated their body temperatures back to a normal degree. After an overlook of the area, they notice the decaying eye of the Golem lying behind where Alex and Driad are sitting. "MAMA MIA, what went down here?" Mario asks out of surprise. Nervously rubbing the back of his head, the boy comes up with a quick lie to explain the situation. "You guys were frozen by the guardian of the temple, so me and Driad took it down. When it was defeated, it's icy body turned into nothing but dust that then flew off into the distance." Giving them a smile as sincere as he possibly can, the rest of the group easily believes the story, and Driad happily looks at Alex, thankful towards him for not telling them the truth.

"Well, I guess all's well that ends well. That means we can move on without an problems, correct?" Gemini asks, his arms arched behind his back as he waits for the decision to move on. "Yes." The others thus exclaim. Alex and Driad get up off the ground, and the group begins to walk towards the doors of the temple. However, Gemini freezes in place as he passes the eye, the smell of blood drifting into his nostrils. "Blood? Where could that smell be coming from?" Tilting his head to the left, Gemini manages to notice the cut on the upper part of the Golem's eye, with a tiny bit of blood still leaking out of it. Bending down to take a closer look at it, he notices something odd lodged into the cut. Moving his hand towards the cut, he puts his fingers around the tip of a wooden splinter and pulls it out. Taking a closer look at it, the Lieutenant finds it's existence in this scenario to be quite strange. "A wooden splinter? But that would mean that..." Thinking to himself about the splinter, he reaches into his shell with his other hand and pulls out a small rectangular device with a white tab sticking out of the end. After placing the splinter onto the tab, it retracts into the device, setting off a small blue glow around the border of the device.

"I'll get the results back from the lab later..." Taking a brief glimpse at the eye again, Gemini stands up and continues on his way, running to catch up with the others who had already entered the temple. Upon entering, the calm air that filled the mountain skies before give way to a chilling arctic breeze. The confines of the temple have walls that are made out of ice plates and light blue bricks, and Doric style columns that keep the mosaic ceiling from falling down on top of the group. The chill in the air causes their breath to be seen as miniature fog clouds that vanish as quickly as they appear. "Hmph, of course it ends up being colder inside the temple." Gemini quips sarcastically, his voice showing annoyance due to the fact that he was hoping that this wouldn't be the case. "Not so fun, is it?" Geno says, tilting his head to give an annoyed glance at the Koopa. "Even so, I can imagine that it can't possibly be any worse than the cold front you had to deal with when you were freed from that block of ice."

As the Lieutenant raises a finger and gets ready to argue Geno's point, he retracts his hand and gives a little more thought to his words, deciding that he does have good point. "Fair argument you set up there Geno." After the brief stop to look at their surroundings, the group begins to trek through the halls of the temple, entering the arched marble doorway on the other side, which leads them to a room where the walls and ceiling seem to be made of thick layers of ice. Mario places his right hand on the walls, giving them a quick tap with his knuckles. "Hmm...My guess is that this room is a maze." Rolling his eyes at Mario's obvious comment, Luigi walks forward with his arms crossed in front of his chest and takes a few steps past Mario to look for the crossroads of this so-called maze. Not to his surprise, there is a crossroad that has a left path and a right path. "Yep, definitely a maze."

Gemini slaps his forehead, showing annoyance over the fact that they have to deal with a maze without an open ceiling. "Great, with the ceiling blocked off we won't be able to see our way out of here." Examining the walls of the maze for himself, Mallow has something to add on to Gemini's comment. "Well Gemini, it looks like there are some icicles above the sheet ice that block the ceiling above us, so even if the ice layer wasn't blocking our way, those icicles would." Lowering his head and squinting his eyes in shame, the Koopa feels ashamed for not realizing that there would probably be other things blocking the group's view of the maze. "Sorry, I didn't think about that..." His sudden lapse of thought is something that Geno catches onto instantly.

"Either way, we better get moving. Any time wasted discussing such meager affairs is time that Cackletta or any other possible seekers of the stones will take to get ahead of us...somehow." Gemini moves his arms away from his hands, saying the first part of the sentence in his normal tone, then turning his head to the right and muttering the last word in a doubtful tone. With nothing left to the discuss, the heroes begin to make their way through the maze, but Gemini is quickly stopped by Geno before he can start moving. "You didn't think about that? That's funny Gemini, from what I've seen of you so far, you seem like the kind of guy who always thinks things through outside of battle. Something on your mind?" The doll's attention us focused on the little spots of blood that have been placed on the tips of Gemini's fingers due to him touching the splinter of wood earlier. The Lieutenant glances at Geno, noticing where his line of sight is focused at, and quietly clenches his fist. "No." He replies in a normal tone of voice, showing no signs of panic in his mind. "Nothing at all." With that, he moves on to catch up with the others.

Geno lowers his head, realizing that Gemini might be catching on about Driad. "So, he noticed the cut on the eye as well..." He whispers to himself. "This may pose a problem..." Beginning his walk to catch up with the others, the star warrior decides to think over the situation. The group has to deal with the many twists and turns that lie within the maze, getting trapped at dead end's a couple of times and ending up back at the entrance at least four times, but eventually they make it through the maze. Turning around to look at the walls as they leave to the next room, Mallow gives a thumbs down at the maze. "I never cared for puzzles like these..." Then they continue on through the dark corridors of the temple. Due to the black color of the ice in this hallway, the room temperature drops down to the negatives, forcing the group to running through it before they suffer from frostbite.

Of course, due to their focus on the frozen hallway, they fail to notice the small ice slide that lies beneath them once they get to the very end of the hall. One by one the heroes get surprised expressions on their faces, and one by one they fall onto the slide, slipping down towards the floor at the bottom. Driad tries to latches onto the sides of the slide to act as support so they don't end up falling into a trap at the bottom, but due to the slickness of the ice he is unable to get a decent enough grasp and thus once the others slam into him his grip is loosened to the point that he continues sliding down towards the bottom. "Sorry guys, I tried!" Driad disappointedly exclaims, though the rest of the group is more or less worried about what lies at the bottom than their friend's failure to support all of them. "That's fine Driad! But stay focused, I doubt we will have time to rest once we hit the bottom." Alex responds. Sure enough, it doesn't take long for the heroes to hit the icy floor below. Due to the speeds they were sliding at, they skid along the floor for a few feet. As they stand back up they try to catch their breath, but it takes not even two seconds for a large cracking noise to echo throughout the darkened space of the room.

"...Cracking noises? In an ice based..." After the sudden realization of the situation grips Gemini's mind, his eyes grow wide and his pupils shrink, his head tilted up to look at the ceiling where he can see plenty of giant icy stalagmites beginning to break apart. As the crack on the first stalagmite begins to grow larger, the Lieutenant staggers back two steps. "Run." Gemini calmly states, his body moving towards the right as he gets ready to dash. The heroes are confused, as they haven't noticed the stalagmites above. "What?" Alex confusingly asks. The Koopa quickly shifts his head so he looks at Alex, thus allowing him to get a good look at the fear that is shown in his eyes. "RUN DAMN IT, OR WE WILL BE CRUSHED BY THE STALAGMITES!" Seeing Gemini break his demeanor in fear like that causes Alex to instantly rear his head up to look at the stalagmites above them. The crack has grown all the way around the circumference of the frontal stalagmite, and now without anything to support it, it begins to come tumbling towards the ground below.

Frantically running towards the other side of the room, the group manages to get out of the way of the falling stalagmite as it impacts with the icy ground below. The weight of the object is heavy enough to break through the floor below, which in turn causes cracks to spread across the ground, leaving many plates to fall down into the seemingly endless chasm below. On top of the constant threat of the ice breaking, the group still has to move fast enough to avoid the gargantuan bulk of the other falling stalagmites. Driad is unable to keep his balance while running across the ice due to not being used to this slippery material, so he ends up tripping on his own two feet and falling face first onto the floor, a petal being dislodged from his face. Alex turns around and notices that Driad has fallen, but can't rush in to save him due to stalagmite that is approaching ever so closer with each passing second.

The Crayzee Dayzee lifts his body off the ground with his arms, and realizes that he is able to latch onto the ice if he uses his thorns as support. With only a few seconds until the stalagmite impacts with the ground, Driad quickly comes up with a plan to escape his predicament. First off, he quickly extends his vines on his left arm out to such a length that it wraps around the entire left side of the stalagmite. Next, he has some thorns quickly pop out of the vines so his arm stays attached. As the stalagmite makes contact with the ground and begins to break apart, he jumps off the collapsing floor and being to retract the vine back into his body. Instead of letting go of the ice though, his body is pulled towards it, allowing him to set foot on the stalagmite itself. Extending thorns out from underneath the soles of his vine feet, he removes his grip from the stalagmite and begins running up the side of it. Due to it's impact with the ground, the stalagmite is falling at a much slower pace than before, allowing Driad to outrun it and reach the top, where he finds Alex flying towards him.

"Oh yeah, way to ruin my awesome moment there Alex!" The Crayzee Dayzee exclaims, upset at the realization that all he did just now was pointless due to the fact that Alex would've saved him soon enough. The boy picks Driad off from on top of the stalagmite and rolls his eyes around without saying a word at first. "You're welcome Driad." With that snarky little comment, he flies away from the falling stalagmite, landing on the other side of the room where the others are currently waiting at. Mario stares blankly at the chasm that lies before them, as not a single chunk of ice remains of the floor. "Well, looks like we won't be leaving this way." Gemini just shrugs, lifting his shoulders up near his head and closing his eyes. "Meh, we found a way out of the Terra Cave, we'll find a way out of here." After kneeling down and rubbing his chin in thought, Mario gets up and turns around, nodding in agreement to Gemini's comment. "I suppose you are right."

Compared to the below zero temperatures of the previous hallway, the one the heroes travel down now has a normal feel to it, not too hot, but not too cold either. Interesting to note that the bricks that line the walls of this hallway are colored brown, directly contrasting the icy colors that have been seen in the rooms before. The group takes this as a sign that they are just about at the room where the stone is at, but the fact that they are arriving there so easily makes them a bit nervous. Upon entering the next room, they find themselves in a grand scale throne room. A tattered ruby tarp lies along the ground, leading to an altar that is made out of three crystal snowflakes and a mosaic painting on the ceiling that depicts a man with angelic wings being devoured by a bloody red beast. Sunlight leaks through the windows on the side of the room, their rays shining on the Ionic crystal columns that support the painting above, which in turn also causes the light to be spread throughout the room. Mallow can't help but comment on the elegance of the room.

"Wow, whoever used to live here must have had some taste..." While the cloud Prince stares at the painting, Gemini looks at the tarp. "Understandably, it seems as though a king used to live here..." As enjoyable as their time in this room is, a familiar sound breaks the mood in the form of an evil laugh. "EEEHEHHEHEHEHE!" They instantly turning their bodies towards the Snowflake Altar and getting into their battle positions. Floating down from above while sitting on a rocket propelled rocking chair is the menacing witch herself, Cackletta. As her chair floats over the altar, her ghoulish pink eyes stare at the heroes, but their composure does not break in her presence. "I'm glad you all made it here alive..." Focusing her attention on Gemini in particular, her devilish lips curl into the shape of an evil grin, every muscle she moves wrinkling as she does. "Especially you, _Lieutenant._...Tell me, how is your Commander doing?"

Gemini is utterly shocked at first that Cackletta knows about him, but then simply chalks it up as Fawful telling her about him and the others after their battle. Knowing exactly what the Koopa is thinking, the witch decides to break his spirit a bit by revealing a surprising bit of info. "I'd like to point out that I haven't seen or spoken to Fawful for the past two days, if that's what you were thinking..." Her raspy voice and piercing tone causes Gemini to recoil a bit in surprise. "How do you-" "Minor details such as that won't matter soon enough. I believe if you knew the truth you would die a happy Koopa. The anguish of never knowing as much of the truth as you possibly can in your life is the kind of feeling that I just LOVE to see my victims experience when they die."

Pissed off at Cackletta's words, Alex decides to step up and talk back at her. "Are you going to be cliche'd or are you going to fight you damn hag?" The witch's eyes narrow, staring at Alex with a searing expression of hatred in her pupils. "Don't think I've forgotten what you did to me a few days ago boy, I plan to make you and the two Italian stereotypes suffer the most before you die." Putting her hand under her cloak, Cackletta begins to pull out something, when a spark of electricity makes impact with a barrier that surrounds her. Gemini tried to fire off a shot to damage her before she could do her evil tasks, but she had come prepared. Looking at the Lieutenant and shaking her head like she's disappointed, she continues to pull a crystal blue, white and cyan colored stone from her cloak, grasping it in her shriveled green hands. The heroes instantly recognize the object as the Ice Stone that they desire.

"How the...How is it not active?" Driad exclaims, worried over the fact that one of the stones is now in the hands of the enemy. "Oh please, your little guardians are nothing more than gnats before my magic." Cackletta lets out a little laugh. "Of course, I didn't even bother wasting my time fighting him, I just grabbed the stone and that's that. You see, those little 'Activation Spells' don't work on one such as myself." Feelings of confusion and fear overcome the group, but Cackletta isn't done hitting them with bad news yet. "Oh don't worry, I'm not interested in keeping your little stones. In fact, I will gladly hand it over to you." The witch snaps the fingers of her free hand, a familiar crystal crown then spawning on her lap, which Mario instantly recognizes as to who used to wear that very crown. His mind flashes back to a brief moment in time where he fought a creature of nothingness that wore an elegant blue robe and the same crown Cackletta holds today.

"That's the Crystal King's crown!" He proclaims. "Indeed it is, plumber of red. Allow me to tell you a little tale." _"Years ago there lived a single powerful king on top of these mountains. He ruled all that touched his frozen domain, a prime majesty of elegance and an illusionist of untold strength. Any who tried to come and claim his throne were met with either death, or forced to live the rest of their natural lives in an illusion world of his own design. One day though, a single man walked into his throne room, and by using the King's arrogance against him he managed to make the King cast an illusion that prevented anyone from seeing his elegant body, including himself. All that he could see were the robes on his back and the crown on his head. This single man then took the temple for himself, using it as a placeholder for a certain little stone..."_

_"Robbed of his glory and majesty, the king buried himself into the confines of the Crystal Palace, the only thing keeping him from going insane was the same illusion powers that he had used to torture others. He trapped himself in an illusion world so to him it would seem like he lived a life much like the one he had before...And after that he was never heard from again..."_ Lifting the crown up off her lap, Cackletta waves her hand over it, a thin purple aura extruding around it. "Now then..." As it begins to glow with a black aura, the witch moves the crown forward, it's crystalline shine becoming dark and purple as it hovers over the ground. "Arise, mighty king, the throne you beset. A lifetime in an illusion, a lifetime you regret! A second chance is now given, arise, arise! Against these heroes it will be easy to freeze, those foolish hearts of their with your sub arctic breeze!"

Zapping the crown with a multicolored lightning bolt, a thunderous boom echoes throughout the room, the shockwave of the boom causing the heroes to put their guards up to avoid being tossed back. Black smoke rises from the ground below the crown, as Cackletta's evil laugh echoes throughout the room soon after. A minute of smoke ends with the fading of it all. As the group regains their balance and focuses their eyes towards the altar, they find the Crystal King is now reborn, the changes to his body being that his crown is a dark purple color, his robe is black with red fuzz on the edge, and his eyes are a ghastly cyan color. Finishing up her laugh, the witch flicks the Ice Stone into the crown of the King. The stone levitates in the very center, and it's powers activate, setting off a cyan colored flash of light as a frosty aura begins to surround the King. "Like I was saying before, heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom and child from the planet Earth, you can have the stone..." Cackletta places her wrinkled hands together in such a way that shows off her evil intentions. "If you manage...to survive. EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!" The Crystal King's eyes glow brightly, as the heroes pull out their respective weapons and/or get their fists ready for the fight of their lives...

_Next Time: The Death's Chill_


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28: Frozen Forthcoming II, Misery's Blizzard.**

Tightening his grip on the trident he wields, Gemini rushes at the Dark Crystal King, not even caring that the being's strength has grown due to exposure from the Ice Stone. The King turns his head towards Cackletta, looking for a signal of approval to fight the charging Koopa. A flick of her wrinkled hand is enough to tell him to fight. Turning his head back around and extending one hand out, Gemini appears right in front of him with the tips of his trident being swung out from the side of his body, the powerful force applied to the swing causes a cloud of dust to be forced up from off the ground, covering the two combatants for a few brief moments. As the dust begins to fade away, it is revealed that the King summoned a solid stick of ice to block Gemini's attack. The two weapons colliding with each other creates some clinking noises, as the metal of Gemini's trident tries to break through the ice, the King whips his hand off to the left, causing the trident to leave the grip of Gemini's hand and fly through the air to thus land and stick into the ground.

As the King is distracted by his swift disarming of Gemini, the Koopa ignites his right hand with a spark of electricity and jabs it through the King's majestic robe. Without a solid body to touch though, Gemini's attack is in vain. "Oh yeah..." His sudden realization of the situation is met with the King violently grabbing a hold of his extended arm with one hand and placing another hand on his chest. The King sends a wave of frozen energy through the palm of his hand, slowly crystallizing the Koopa's arm. A sharp pain rings throughout Gemini's nervous system, as he can feel every fiber of his muscles freezing in the presence of the King's chilling grip. Unable to do anything while under the influence of this pain, the King is able to turn Gemini's right arm into a block of ice. Letting go, the King redirects his energy to his other hand, sending out a powerful burst of snow flakes that propels the Lieutenant away from his body.

Gemini's body flies straight into a pillar that lies off to the right of the rest of the group, his impact with it causing some cracks to appear on it. As his body lays motionless on the floor below, Alex becomes enraged. "Gemini!" Shifting his focus from where Gemini is lying down at to where the King floats, he extends one hand out to the left of himself and presses his right fist onto his chest. "Come on Driad, we can take him together!" Not even paying attention to Alex but still determined to avenge Gemini, Driad just shuts his eyelids and nods his head, opening the lids back up and turning his right vine arm into his leaf-shaped sword. The two charge at the King, as Mario extends his hand out to try and stop them from recklessly rushing towards the enemy. "No! Wait and think things through first!"

Standing still without flinching at the fool hearted charge of the determined heroes, the Crystal King lifts his left hand up and with a snap of the fingers, a massive ice wall spawns in front of him. Skidding to a halt in the presence of this wall, Driad and Alex are unable to hear the King snap his fingers again, and just as quickly as it appeared the wall begins breaking apart into a multitude of icy projectiles that fire themselves at the two. Alex raises his arms up and Driad raises his sword to block the oncoming onslaught. When the storm of ice shards dies down and the two heroes lower their guards, they find that the Crystal King has vanished. "What the..." The boy blankly states. A cold chill ruffles his hair, causing him to turn around and notice the Crystal King floating in front of him. Flicking his right hand off to the side faster than Alex can react, a pillar of ice traps the two heroes completely inside of it. Then the King brings his hands together to make a quiet clapping sound and the pillar breaks apart into a cloud of icy dust, the two heroes now bruised and battered without any explanation as to why.

Driad falls face first onto the ground, the pressure of the cold forcing his body to become unresponsive. The boy then falls to the ground, forced to support his weight by kneeling on one leg, his hand laying down on top of his kneecap with him panting deeply in pain, his heart beating strongly against the confines of his chest. The King turns around and begins to move forward, ready to finish the job. Having had enough of what was going down, Mario clenches his fist and lightly adjusts his cap. He then rushes towards the King, creating a fireball in the palm of his right glove. He is just about ready to fling the fireball directly into the Crystal King's crown when a giant boulder falls from the sky and slams down on top of the King, seemingly crushing him into the ground before. Cackletta shows obvious signs of disgust over this matter, until she notices Alex holding the Earth Stone in his right hand. "Clever little boy...But that's the only time he will be able to use that today..." She whispers to herself, not even seeming to care that the one she summoned just got crushed by the boulder.

Mario peeked around the side of the boulder, watching as the boy puts the stone away into his pockets. His body is still damaged from the ice pillar attack, but his mind is at ease knowing that they have won. He gives a little reassuring smile at Mario, but he suddenly feels a sudden decrease in temperature floating around the room. "No way..." Alex says in disbelief, noticing that the bottom of the boulder is changing colors from brown to a frozen light-blue. Not only that, but a cracking noise begins to fill the confines of the room as the ice spreads along the bottom of the boulder. Then, there is a five second period of silence...

A silence that is broken instantly by the complete disintegration of the boulder, as the Crystal King floats in the center of the ice cloud created by the boulder's destruction, Mario notices that he has a snowball in each hand. Before the plumber can create a fireball to counterattack, the King extends his hands out and fires the snowballs at the two of them. Taking advantage of the fact that they are distracted with guarding his snowballs, the King vanishes and reappears in front of Alex. The boy jerks his head up and notices the King's sudden appearance in front of him, but is quickly knocked unconscious once the majestic being punches him in the gut. Without missing a beat, the King does a complete 180 to turn his attention towards Mario, with the boy's body falling head first onto the ground. Continuing his emotionless beatdown, the King appears before Mario in an instant and pulls a sharp blade of ice out of thing air and lifts it above his head.

Gemini, who has just regained consciousness after being knocked back, instantly notices that King ready to finish the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom off. Not even giving a damn about what harm will befall his body from doing it, Gemini thrusts his frozen arm into the pillar behind him, the immense force and effort put into it smashing the ice into bits and pieces. Even though a sheering pain blisters throughout his arm, the Koopa moves both of hands closer together at a fast pace almost right after he broke the ice off of his arm. Before both hands hit each other a multitude of black sparks appear at the fingertips. When the two hands come together, a thunderous clap pierces the air, shattering the mosaic painting up above. But that is not all that happens. Emerging from the tips of his hands is a big black beam of electricity, with bolts of red lightning surging around the circumference of the beam.

As the King brings his sword down towards Mario, Gemini's attack burns through not just the sword, but the hand that gripped it as well. As it continues forward past the King, it burns through the wall and seers out into the skies before fading away into nothingness. Thanks to it fired off, there is now a rounded hole in the wall whose upper lip is melting away slowly. What remains of the King's right hand is a hot cloud of fog that is rising up into the air and vanishing without a single trace. The rest of the group, who had pretty silent up until this point, look at Gemini with an utterly blank expression on their faces, their jaws agape in disbelief at the move the Koopa just pulled. Luigi feels the need to speak up about what just went down.

"WHAT THE HECK GEMINI? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?" He exclaims, holding his hands out in front of his waist to show his confusion. Gemini has exhausted himself completely though, mainly due to not only the attack he just fired off, but the injuries suffered from breaking the ice off of his arm. Sweating all around, the Lieutenant is taking in some very deep breaths to keep himself steady. Cackletta looks at Gemini, annoyed at how stubborn the Koopa is. "That little menace just won't go down..." She rubs her chin in thought. "Then again, being the result of his crazed experiment, I wouldn't have expected anything less...He really missed out on a perfect power source for his army, but that matters not now..."

With barely any strength to speak, Gemini decides to make his response brief, pointing to the somewhat disabled Crystal King. "I'll...huff...explain later..." Gemini coughs up blood. "You got an opening...huff...TAKE IT!" Lowering his arm onto his legs, the remaining four heroes take a fighting stance against the King, with Mario getting up on his own two feet and delivering a swift punch at the king. The King, still having enough energy left in it's body, teleports out of the way of the punch. As the group soon sees, the king has a couple of tricks up it's own hollow sleeves. Two apparitions of the king appear on both sides of his body and split away from his body, solidifying their forms for battle. Luigi goes beside Mario, Geno stands before the left clone, and Mallow before the right one. Each hero looks at each other, nodding and getting ready to fight the respective copies of the Crystal King that are in front of them.

Geno is the first one to attack, firing a Geno Beam at the copy of the Crystal King that lies in front of him. The King ducks out of the way and gently slips towards the doll, creating a snowball in his right hand and slamming it against the jacket that Geno is wearing. To the King's surprise, the star warrior isn't sent flying by his attack. "Oh yeah, you see this jacket? It not only keeps my body warm, but it also has a 100% resistance to weaker ice attacks." After saying this and watching the previously emotionless King's eyes widen, Geno folds his arms back and knocks the King on the crown with his elbow, slamming him down onto the ground with a large thud. The doll realizes that this is not enough to finish him off, and points his gun hand at the Ice Stone that floats in the center of the crown. Before he can fire off a Geno Beam though the Crystal King rolls out of the way, causing the attack to miss and hit the floor instead.

The King gets up off the ground as Geno twists his body around so his gun is pointing at him. The frozen figure quickly grabs a hold of the gun arm with his only hand and starts sending a steady stream of ice out in an attempt to freeze the doll's arm off. Closing his wooden hand down on top of the King's own hand causes him to move it away from Geno's body. Not about to let the King get away with that attempt at freezing his hand off, he then fires his closed fist at the King, finally landing a direct hit on the crown and sending the King reeling back towards the wall. As the fist reattaches itself to Geno's arm, the King flips around and applies both of his feet onto the wall, building up enough force to jump back at the star warrior, creating an even bigger snowball above his body and bringing it down on his opponent as he gets close enough. The impact of the snowball sends a flurry of snowflakes flying around the room.

Mallow is having an easy time dealing with the Crystal King's copy. His staff allows him to bat away any snowballs before they hit him, and his quickly timed weather spells keeps the clone from being able to charge in and deliver a direct hit. But then again, while Mallow is able to defend himself as easily as he is, he is unable to hit the clone due to it's incredible agility. On top of that, even though the clone has to keep dodging his attacks, it is inching ever closer to his position. The cloud Prince knows that he can't take very many hits due to his low defense, so he comes up with a quick plan to deal with the clone's maneuverability. Raising his staff up into the air, Mallow calls forth a dark grey cloud, which looms over his body. From the cloud falls a load of rain drops, the concentration of drops creating a small puddle around his body. But he is not yet done. As the King inches closer to him, the Nimbusian calls forth another spell from the cloud above. A large cracking sound echoes through the tight confines of the room, as sparks begin to form around the sides of the cloud, the King looks down at the puddle he has walked into, and after a quick realization, the once emotionless being's eyes widen in fear, as Mallow casts his staff down towards the direction of the King.

"SHOCKER!" Mallow exclaims, putting plenty of emotion into his words as a massive thunderbolt emerges from the clouds and roars down upon the King's clone, and once it makes contact with the water surrounding him a massive explosion covers up the both of them, preventing anyone from seeing if the attack has succeeded or not. The Mario Bros. are fighting the last remaining copy of the King, and due to it being a two against one battle the Bros. are able to overwhelm the King with a combination of Mario's fireballs and Luigi's Thunderhand moves. To even the odds a bit, the last clone flips his cape over to the left, motioning into the air with his hands in an attempt to call forth a gale of icy wind from nowhere. The cold winds blow at Mario and Luigi, forcing the two of them to stop their attacks and push all their weight down onto the ground to avoid being blown away. They also cover their faces up with their arms so the chill doesn't rise into their nostrils. Once the wind dies down, Luigi starts to move his arms away from his face, only for a round ball of ice to smash right into his forehead, causing him to fall onto the floor, back first.

"LUIGI!" Mario exclaims, waving his arms and panicking due to his brother suddenly being attacked out of the blue like that. It is then revealed that the orb that attacked Luigi has a pair of menacing red eyes. Mario recognizes this enemy as a "Crystal Bit" a creature that the Crystal King spawns and controls for attacks. The plumber then rationalizes that it's darker appearance is due to being linked to the new appearance of their foe. He also knows that where there is one, there are two more. And he is indeed correct, as with a quick turn of the head to look at the Crystal King's copy, Mario finds both a pyramid and a cube shaped Crystal Bit floating around the shoulders of the King. The Sphere shaped Crystal Bit that attacked Luigi quickly floats back to it's master, hanging motionlessly above his head. The man in green gets back up on his own two feet and rubs the top of his hat, his head ringing in pain.

"You ok Luigi?" Mario asks, his voice showing concern for his little brother. "Head will probably be a bit bruised, but besides that I'm ready to continue." The plumber nods his head, delighted to hear those words come out of his brother's mouth. Punching one hand into the palm of the other, Mario gets a determined look on his face, as does Luigi. "Let's-a go!" "Okiee-dokiee!" The two bros. charge at the Crystal King, who motions his hand at the Crystal Bits that surround him. Without even looking at their master, the bits do his bidding by flying themselves at the two brothers. All the two of them have to do is look at each other, and they are able to realize just what the other is planning to do. An unbreakable bond between brothers is the thing that bested Cackletta before, and she is about to witness once again why it's not wise to underestimate them.

Mario grabs a hold of the sphere shaped Crystal Bit and clenches it tightly in his fist. Summoning a small flame from the confines of his body, he warms the frozen bit and melts it into nothing more than a liquid mess. Tossing the water that remains in his hand out in front of them, Luigi lifts his hand up and shapes his fingers into the form of a gun, a spark of electricity building at the tip. What would normally be a few harmless drops of water is now a minefield that Luigi will be able to ignite with his Thunderhand. The two remaining Crystal Bits fly into the field of water, and in that instance, time begins to slow down. A small bolt of lightning leaves through the tips of Luigi's fingers, flying slowly through the air until it is just about to make contact with the water droplets. Before the lightning hits, the eyes of the bits bulge into the shape of giant circles due to the sudden realization of just how screwed they truly are.

Once the electricity finally touches the edge of one of the water droplets, time continues moving at it's normal pace as an miniature explosion marks the end of the two Crystal Bits. From the smoke created by the blast, Mario jumps through the cloud with a fireball formed in the palm of his right hand. "WOO-HOO!" He exclaims at the top of his lungs. The King's clone puts his hands up to try and block Mario's attack, but all he receives is a fireball slammed right into his non-existent face. With that attack, Mario has succeeded in knocking the body of the clone down into the ground, cracking the floor that lies beneath them and sending dust up everywhere.

Back with Cackletta, the witch finds herself amused by the heroes' battle against the revived Crystal King, but decides that now is the time to stop playing around and end this. "Alright Plumbers of the Mushroom Kingdom, Prince of Nimbus Land, and Herald of the Star Spirits..." Cackletta begins a slow clap, her eyes focused on Mario in particular, who is now looming over the fallen clone of the Crystal King. "I commend you for your battle, even if you have failed to claim victory..." With that comment, the heroes all turn their attention towards Cackletta, surprised and worried by her comment. "What do you mean we've failed? The King and all of his copies are down for the count." Geno lifts his hand up, pointing his gun fingers at the witch. "The only one who has lost here it you, witch." A menacing grin grows along Cackletta's face. "Have I now?"

A frozen presence fills the room, freezing the nerves of the heroes' in a manner of fear. The fallen bodies of the Crystal King rise back up and vanish in a puff of icy dust. The dust causes Mallow and Mario to start coughing, leaving Geno and Luigi to notice the three copies standing side by side with their right hands being held out in unison. "It was fun, heroes..." Cackletta snaps her old, wrinkly fingers. "Farewell." Once she finishes her sentence from the hands of the copies emerges a beam made out of the northern lights themselves, with each beam having two different colors on them. All three beams combine together to create a large rainbow colored aurora beam that tears apart the ground in front of it with it's mighty force. Completely taking aback by the sudden appearance of this powerful attack, the heroes are utterly overwhelmed once the beam slams right through them. The beam continues traveling through the room, smashing right through the wall that hangs above the doorway and cutting a path of destruction through the very temple itself, tearing away at the ice and stone that makes up it's insides.

Eventually, when there is nothing left to go through, the beam dies down, revealing the scars of the attack that have been burned into the floor. In the ash covered ground lays the fallen bodies of the heroes. While they have suffered great damage from the attack, they are still alive. Though now they are at the complete and utter mercy of the Crystal King. The King's two clones put their hands down and vanish away into nothingness, their purpose now fulfilled. With his hand still outstretched, the malicious man of royalty summons another blade of ice similar to the one he drew earlier against Gemini. Following the will of Cackletta, he starts to slowly walk over to the fallen bodies of the heroes to end their lives forever. However, a small prick on the shoulder causes the King to stop and look to the left, noticing the sweating and panting Gemini with his sparking right hand outstretched.

"Huff...gah..." The Koopa moans, lowering his hand and continuing to sweat in pain. The King decides to switch targets, turning his entire body towards Gemini and beginning to advance towards him. The Koopa closes his eyelids and tries to think of a way out of this situation. All his allies…no, his friends are down, he is hurting and out of energy, while the King is in perfect health. "There's...nothing left..." A tear trickles down Gemini's cheek. Whether it is from the pain or from the despair of being unable to do anything can not be said. The King stands before Gemini, sword drawn above his head. Then, in the midst of all this silence, one could hear what sounds like energy charging up, along with the sound of a few gears clicking together. The King wonders where this noise is coming from, and turns his head to the right.

What happens next occurs too quickly for the King to react. A medium sized crimson ion beam blazes through the King's head, and as it is engulfed completely his icy crown melts away into liquid. Cackletta moves to the right to avoid the beam, but shows disgust for some reason. "You..." The beam disappears, having hit it's intended target spot on. What remains of the Crystal King's head is the Ice Stone that powered it up in the first place. The robe falls to the ground, and dark smoke rises from it's sleeves. Gemini opens his eyes, and after noticing that the Crystal King has fallen he looks to the left. What he sees both confuses him and surprises him. "So...I guess I still need to be saved by you then..." Below the doorway of the room, a smoking cannon hole can be seen attached to a golden arm of sorts. As the hole finishes smoking, the cannon is covered up by a fully functional golden hand whose metallic surface is as smooth as the ice around them. "Cackletta, you snake of a witch you..." A gruff voice says angrily. As the person lowers their golden mechanical arm, it is revealed that the one who wields such a complicated piece of equipment is nothing more than a bigger than average Goomba. He has two golden arms attached directly to the sides of his body, a black leather eyepatch covering up his right eye and wrapping around his head, a black trenchcoat wrapped around his curved body, and a little tiny bit of beard hair growing along his chin. "How dare you attempt to lay a single god damn hand on my Lieutenant!" In the face of this Goomba's angry exclamation, Cackletta grits her teeth and tightly grips the handles of her chair. "How pleasant of you to join us...Commander Alpha of the M.S.I..."

_Next Time: The Code of Honor_


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29: Frozen Forthcoming III: Beatings of a Metal Heart.**

Cackletta and Alpha's eyes are focused on only each other, the tension that could be seen between the two was intense. Gemini is looking at his Commander, his vision blurred due to the pain in his body causing tears to form in his eyes. As he takes a few deep breaths and attempts to comprehend the situation, Alpha begins to walk his way. His eyes still focused on the witch, the calculating Goomba lifts a hand up and clenches it into the shape of a fist, leaving his index finger pointed out towards the ceiling. A small needle pokes through the metal layers that cover the finger, and as Alpha passes by Gemini he swiftly jabs and retracts the needle into his Lieutenant's left arm. The pain that Gemini is experiencing increases immensely for a period of five seconds, but then all the pain is subdued as the Koopa now feels as energetic as he was before he fought the Crystal King. With a few blinks of his eyes, he wonders what in the world his Commander did to heal him up so quickly, but chalks it up as his Commander being his usual prepared self.

Lifting his left arm up and flexing the muscles in his hands, Gemini creates a small spark in his palm. Alpha folds his arms behind his back, crossing them in a manner that shows his calm and collected personality. All this time he still has had his eye on Cackletta, but after this period of silence one of the few warriors still standing decides to speak out. "Lieutenant." Alpha is the first to talk, directing his comment towards the rejuvenated Koopa. Even though his tone is quiet, the direct dialect causes Gemini to quickly lift his head up to look at his Commander and salute with his right hand. "Thank you for coming Commander, but just why-" Gemini is interrupted as Alpha takes his left hand out and motions it towards the bodies of the fallen heroes. "Now that I used my special syringe to heal your body, I need you to use your electric powers to get their pulses back up and running." With that said he folds his arm back behind his body once more. "That's an order, Gemini."

The Lieutenant quickly and steadily rises up on his own two feet and nods his head, accepting the command that had been given to him and then proceeding to run over to Mario's charred and fainted body. Alpha's eyes shifts to the left, glancing over his rounded body and taking a quick look at the damage that the Palace had sustained from the battle. In particular, he notices a part of the wall that is melting away. He lowers his eyebrow slightly, his mind thinking about matters that only he knows about. He then raises his eyebrow back to it's normal spot and continues to glance at Cackletta, who is looking at both Alpha and Gemini with a great deal of interest. "The Commander of the M.S.I. Alpha...The only Goomba in the world with arms, and those arms contain many devices that are useful for a multitude of situations...Lieutenant of the M.S.I. Gemini...With his control over electricity and a secret force driving his heart, he is a powerful and dangerous warrior..." As these thoughts run through the witch's mind, she takes her wrinkled right hand and grasps her rounded green chin with it, letting out a little cackle from her mouth. "The two of them together would be a threat to pretty much everyone else in the world...but to me, they are nothing more than a couple of annoying pricks on the shoulder..."

As Gemini moves from Mario to Luigi, a cold breeze ruffles Alpha's trenchcoat, causing it to sway back and forth in pace with the wind. "You caused quite a bit of damage, Cackletta. I assume that giant rainbow colored beam I saw on my way in here was the work of your little puppet?" The witch respond with a little laugh, and then she lowers her arm down onto the handle of her chair. "Now now, that was the respec-" "No, you witch." Alpha interrupts, closing his eyes and shaking his head in disgust. "I don't see how you can call your puppet a respectable being. He lost all traces of dignity when he decided to work for someone like Bowser. Actually, let me correct myself there. He lost all that made him respected a long time ago, when he ended up blinded by a lust for perfection and greediness."

Opening his eyelids, Alpha sees that Cackletta still has that confident grin on her wrinkly face, unfazed by his words. "But you care little for my rebuttal...I'm not surprised." "So what do you want, oh esteemed Commander?" The witch's words slip gently off of her tongue, a sarcastic tone gripping the second part of her question tightly. Alpha's eyebrows lower, his hatred for the witch being shown in his glare. "I've been watching you. You, Fawful, and the now dead Joe Dark, what is your plan exactly? What reason could you possibly have for showing up here?" Cackletta closes her eyes slightly, her face continuing to show that menacing grin. "You really think that I would say anything?" "Yes. Considering your villainous nature, I thought it would be natural for you to brag about how 'Us pathetic heroes stand no chance of victory' Interesting to note that you seem to have learned from your previous defeat..."

"Speaking of which...How are you possibly still alive after your previous defeat? Did your partners help out? Would've been pretty easy for one of the two to perform the task, eh?" Gemini pauses in place for a moment as he finishes rejuvenating Alex. He lifts his head up slowly and looks at his Commander, his eyes showing bewilderment. "Partners? Commander, what are you talking about? Isn't Fawful-" Alpha waves an arm out at his Lieutenant. "Continue executing the task that I have assigned you Gemini." Alpha nonchalantly proclaims, crossing his arms back together just as quickly as he moved them away.

Cackletta's eyelids close, her forehead becoming wrinkled out of annoyance. "I don't know what you are claiming to be real Commander, but you must remember that I am a powerful witch, and it would be easy to revive myself with a spell that I set up before my demise at the hands of the two plumbers that lie behind you." Though Alpha feels that the witch is lying so he doesn't catch on about her true goal, he also knows not to deny the possibility of the witch being revived by the hands of her own magic. "Very well, dark witch Cackletta." Quickly bringing his right arm out in front of his body, the metallic fingers retract into his hand, and then the hand itself goes into his arm as well. The same metallic cannon that he had created earlier reappears where the hand once laid, and in the span of five seconds a red beam fires out of the cylinder. The beam cuts right through Cackletta's magic barrier and smashes right into the witch's blackened heart.

"Come back to life now..." Alpha says, his voice taking a cold and angered tone. Even with a big gaping whole in her chest, the witch still has that arrogant grin on her face, despite the fact that her body is now turning into dust and flying away. The Commander lifts his head up a bit and changes his arm back into it's normal state, wondering just what the witch has planned next. To his surprise though, the witch isn't trying anything funny. In fact, she was never really there at all...As the remaining bits of dust vanish into the air, Cackletta's eerie laugh echoes throughout the room. Though he is disheartened by the fact that his target got away without him really getting any answers, Alpha is more concerned about the conditions of the other heroes. As he turns around to take a look at Gemini's progress, his trenchcoat sways in the breeze. By this point, the Koopa has reached Mallow, with his hands pressed against the cloud boy's chest and sparks surging through his palms.

"How goes the work, Lieutenant?" Alpha says in his normal tone, sounding unfazed by the events that just transpired with Cackletta. Gemini looks up and can only think of how strange it is to see his Commander acting like that. "I really don't get how you are able to keep your cool during times like this. I mean you casually bring up the possibility of Cackletta having other allies and then easily play along with her mind game even though-" "So it's going well then, Gemini?" Alpha says sternly, staring at his Lieutenant in order to get him to stop talking about irrelevant matters. Gemini understands that Alpha is not really in the mood to listen to him complain, so he lowers his head back down to look at his progress. "Sorry Commander." He says in an apologetic tone. "I guess I still don't have enough experience..." "You've served me for six years. You just got to have more faith in yourself." The Goomba's reassuring tone causes Gemini to feel a bit of regret for worrying over nothing.

"Sorry Commander." Once again he regretfully says, lowering his head a tiny bit after those words leave his mouth. When the Koopa is done with Mallow, he lifts his hands up off of his fluffy chest and stands up on his own two feet. Considering that he is taller than his Commander, Gemini has to lower his head to make contact with the solitary eye on his face. "So, how long will it be until they are all back on their feet?" Alpha asks, not the least bit intimidated by his Lieutenant's size. "Assuming the process went well, they should all be up in another two minutes. I'm quite surprised though..." Gemini says, shifting his head to the left to gaze at Geno. Alpha takes notice of this, and looks at the wooden doll as well. "I didn't expect to have to perform the process on him of all people. His body, despite it's wooden craftsmanship, is able to project the sound of a working heartbeat. I assume this is due in part to the Star Spirit's power, but I fail to see why they would add such a feature to him."

Alpha closed his eye and reached into the deep recesses of his mind to think of an answer to Gemini's perplexing question. "I'm unable to give you an answer Gemini. I can only give you my own theory on this matter..." Tilting his head to glance at Alpha, Gemini raises an eyebrow in interest. "Mind telling me it Commander?" The Goomba turns his head and lets a joyous smile glide across his lips. "Well, even though the Star Spirits are pretty much the closest things to gods on this planet save for Rosalina, they have been wise enough to not let the power they wield go to their heads. To help their children understand the values of morality, they probably allow a few select star kids to use a normally inanimate object and gives it features similar to that of an organic being. Alas, my thoughts are nothing but pure speculation, and I doubt they would reveal such secrets to the unworthy. Knowledge as great as theirs is both a gift, and a curse."

Without even realizing it, two minutes have already flown by, and the first to wake up is Mario. Letting out a small moan of pain as he moves his right hand towards his forehead, Mario lifts his head up off the scorched ground below and slowly his eyes open up. His vision blurred due to a combination of being knocked out and his body being tossed for a loop by the Crystal King's attack, the first thing he tries to look for is a sign of any survivors. He is able to locate a body on the ground who is clothed in green. Recognizing it immediately as his brother, Mario lets out a sigh of relief. Then his vision returns to it's normal state, and as he looks to the right the first thing he notices is Gemini standing next to a Goomba with mechanical arms. Within a few seconds of staring blankly at this unusual sight, and a couple blinks of his eyelids Mario falls backwards onto the ground, his arms outstretched beside him.

"Mama mia! I'm not awake! I'm in one of those crazy dreams!" He thus exclaims. Gemini just lowers his eyelids and stares at Mario while placing his hands over his face, giving a blank look that shows that he is not amused. All at once, the rest of fallen heroes wake up from their extended period of inactivity and instantly notice the hero of the Mushroom lying on the ground with his eyes covered up. "Mario, what are you doing?" Alex asks, the plumber's condition taking top priority over the fact that the Crystal King and Cackletta are both gone. Quickly reacting to the boy's words, Mario thrusts his right arm out towards Alpha's direction. The group turn their heads towards the direction that their hero is pointing at currently. Not surprisingly, they react the same way as Mario did, though their thoughts on the matter are a little more vocal.

"A Goomba with arms? ...Did we die and are now being judged by this being?" Driad asks. Geno, recognizing the Goomba instantly, folds his arms in front of his chest and turns his head back around with his eyes closed. "Ah, so this is the famous Commander of the M.S.I." Most of the group instantly turn their heads around to look at the star warrior as though he had lost his mind, and Mario lifts his head up off the ground to look at the his friend as well. Alpha lets out a little chuckle, lowering his head slightly and getting an eager grin on his face. "Well well, hard of believe that the famous Star Herald Geno would know just who I was. I guess I was right..." Alex isn't believing any of this. He takes another look at Alpha, his eyelids shutting ever so slightly to examine the battle hardened Goomba. Despite Geno knowing just who he was, he just couldn't believe that a GOOMBA, one of the weakest species on the planet, is actually the leader of such a highly advanced sounding facility. Alpha turns his head towards Alex and instantly picks up on just what he is thinking about.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to not judge people based on their appearance, Mr. Whiter?" Alpha says with a chuckle, mocking Alex for his "quick to judge" attitude. The boy himself is surprised that the Goomba just suddenly blurted out his name like that. "Wait, how do you-" "I know plenty about each and every one of you." Alpha quickly interrupts, pointing one of his fingers at the dumbstruck boy. Moving his hand to point at Mario, he gets ready to list off a few details about each of the heroes. "Mario Mario, oldest of the two Mario Bros. Age is unknown, but it can be speculated that you are at least over thirty. A long time ago you were sent to an Earth much different from the one Alex originates from. Why you were sent there is unknown as well, but you returned a few years back and defeated Bowser, thus freeing the planet from his rule." He then moves his hand towards Luigi. "Luigi Mario, underrated younger brother of Mario Mario. Also vanished along with Mario years ago. Though your accomplishments aren't as great, you have managed to defeat the Chestnut King and save the Waffle Kingdom without your brother's help."

Now to Mallow. "Mallow. Prince of Nimbus Land, adopted by the sage Frogficius, you were raised as a tadpole without the inability to jump. Your heritage as a Nimbusian is related to the now dead creature called Cloud n' Candy." Now to Driad. "Driad. Outside guardian of the Nature Castle...I don't really have much else to say besides that." Now to Geno. "Geno. Herald of the Star Spirits and protector of the Star Road. You are in actuality a star inhabiting the body of a doll that was previously owned by a Toad boy named Gaz. Your true name is unintelligible to mere mortals, so you instead decided to be called Geno due to the name of the doll itself." Alpha folds his arms behind his back and lets out a satisfied grin. "Need I say more?"

At this point the heroes' mouths have all dropped to the floor, leaving them to do nothing but babble incoherently, their minds trying to comprehend just how this Goomba is able to keep track of and remember all this stuff involving them. But then they realize that it's time to get serious about the matters at hand. Mainly, finding out just what happened after they were hit by that large energy beam. "Ok, we get it, this Goomba is the Commander of the M.S.I., and he knows plenty about us. BUT NONE OF THIS EXPLAIN WHAT THE HECK WENT DOWN HERE!" Alex exclaims while waving his arms around over his head. "I mean seriously, that beam obviously had all of us down for the count. We should've been dead because no one was able to fight the Crystal King at that point."

"I can shed some light on that." Gemini says, motioning his hand in front of his face like he's adjusting the position of a pair of glasses on his face. "You see, after you guys were briefly put out of commission, I tried to distract the Crystal King by using the last of my energy to draw his attention towards me. I figured that if he spent a few seconds walking over to try and attack me instead, that it would've given you guys enough time to maybe recover and finish off the Crystal King while he was distracted. Instead, Alpha ended up showing up and finishing him off with his ion cannon. Then he injected me with a syringe and I used my electric powers to get your bodies back into a working order."

"Well that's very insightful Gemini, but there are a couple of things I have to ask..." Geno says. "One, why is Alpha here in the first place? Two, what happened to Cackletta?" "I suppose I owe you all an explanation for my appearance." Alpha says while walking towards the center of the room. Alex's gaze follows the Commander as he walks, his mind still trying to understand how a Goomba could possibly have any arms. "Yes, an explanation would be nice. After all, Gemini told us once before that you rarely get involved in missions yourself. So you must have a reason for coming here." Holding his right hand out towards the direction that the boy is standing at, Alpha shuts his single eyelid and begins to explain his motives. "Simply put, I caught wind of Cackletta advancing into this temple. I figure she was planning on ambushing all of you once you showed up in this room, but what I didn't count on was you all showing up as early as you did. Had I been just a few minutes earlier, you wouldn't have been brought to the brink of death."

Folding his arms behind his back once again, Alpha looks up towards the ceiling, his mind deep in thought. "As for Cackletta, once the Crystal King vanished, I attempted to finish her off myself, but it turns out that what you thought was her was merely a clone/illusion she created to throw us all off. She was never really here at all." After letting his thoughts loose, the Commander lowers his head and turns to stare at the group. "Anyone got anymore questions to ask me?" Shaking their heads in unison, the group watches as Alpha walks over to the Ice Stone and picks it up, it's rounded shape being completely gripped in the palm of his hand. Walking over to Alex, the Goomba stretches his arm out and opens his hand, offering the stone to him. Nodding his head to thank Alpha for saving them, Alex takes the Ice Stone out of his palm and tucks it away in his pants pocket.

"Now follow me, I know another way through the Palace so we don't have to deal with crossing that one gigantic abyss. After that, we'll take my personal chopper back to Toad Town." After everyone gets up on their feet and begins to start walking towards the door, Gemini hears a ringing noise coming from inside his shell. Reaching his hand into it, he pulls out the small box that he had used earlier to analyze the splinter and finds that the border around it is not glowing green, signaling that the results have come back. "All right, let's see who is the owner of this DNA sample..." A name briefly flashes on the front of the box. Even though only Gemini can see the name, his shocked expression clearly shows that he was not expecting this person. "That can't be...It was-" "Lieutenant." Before Gemini is able to say the name of the person, he notices his Commander looking at him from across the room, suspicious of his actions at this moment.

"Is something the matter?" Alpha says, his eye focused on the hole that was blasted in the wall off to the left. "No Commander, nothing is wrong." The Lieutenant replies. The brief second of hesitation to respond to his question causes Alpha to raise his eyelid in suspicion. "You think I was born yesterday? You think I wouldn't notice that hole in the wall? I come in here and find you lying against a pillar with your body wrecked. If you were using your full power the entire time, you shouldn't have been in that condition. When we get back to Toad Town, we are going to talk about this matter some more, Lieutenant." After berating his Lieutenant for his foolishness, Alpha turns around and continues walking through the doorway. Feeling guilt due to knowing what his Commander is referring to, Gemini begins to walk towards the doorway, thinking over his actions and the results of the analysis. "The Commander might be right...I've been afraid to use...well, THAT in the presence of the others, and because of that we almost got killed...But that's not the most important thing on my mind right now...If the results are truly correct, then Driad is the one who defeated the outside guardian...What confuses me though is just how he managed to pull it off by himself..." With these thoughts weighing heavily on his mind, the Koopa exits the cold confines of the throne room...

Meanwhile, in an unknown part of the Mushroom Kingdom, where the dark brown ground spews lava from it's cracks every few seconds and steaming geysers send carbon dioxide flying through the air, we find the monstrous Koopa King walking towards a coal colored cave at the very edge of these lands. Floating behind him is his trusty Magikoopa companion Kamek and his ghoulish Clown Copter, which holds the beaten, bound and gagged Princess Peach inside of it. Kamek lets out a small cough, the toxic air causing his lungs to react negatively. "Sir, how can you stand the air around here? Cough, hack!" Bowser turns his head to look at his elder magician, and lets out his signature guffaw. "If it's such a problem, just use your magic to protect yourself. For me, this land is a paradise." Taking heed of his sire's advice, Kamek casts a barrier around himself that causes any air that he breathes to be pure.

"I just don't get it sire. What are you planning to do exactly? By this time Mario for sure must have acquired the first six stones and will be heading here next. And considering how his collecting adventures usually go, he'll probably have gathered enough allies that they will be able to easily overwhelm us." "You remember my plan, right?" Bowser confidently responds, not really paying attention to Kamek's complaints. "Yes, but I fail to see how..." "Good." The Koopa King thus interrupts'. As they approach the cave, a monstrous pile of lava rises out of the ground and begins to loom over the Koopa King. It's size rivals that of all other guardians seen so far. Not the least bit intimidated by this guardian, Bowser puts his fingers into his mouth and lets out a loud whistle. The next sound that can be heard is that of a train whistle echoing loudly throughout the skies, and as Bowser gets a confident grin on his face a long, massive shadow is cast onto the ground...

_Next Time: Onward to the Last Temple!_


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30: Midnight Promises**

It is now night time. The moon is full once again and it's bright rays are cast upon the ground below. Upon returning to Toad Town in Alpha's personal chopper, the heroes' exit its technologically advanced confines and find themselves right next to E. Gadd's lab. As the Commander exits it himself, he flips open a panel on his arm and presses down on the red button that lies underneath it. After the colors shift around on the jet in a wavy pattern, it becomes completely invisible. "Is that really a good idea? What if someone walks into it?" Driad points out, a single sweatdrop flowing down his forehead in concern for the oblivious citizens of Toad Town. As Alpha closes the panel, he turns around and begins walking towards the front door of the lab. "It's night time. What are the odds of someone besides us running around at this late hour?"

As the heroes begin to advance towards the lab, Alpha holds his hand out, which causes them all to pause. "Now now everyone, besides me and Mario, who really needs to go and see E. Gadd tonight?" Taking the Goomba's words into consideration, everyone else awkwardly tries to form a complete sentence in an attempt to make an excuse for going inside, but Alpha simply places his arms behind his back and continues walking towards the front door. "I thought so. Just get some rest, gather your thoughts. We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow." Alex intervenes for a moment, noticing something crazy with Alpha's sentence. "We? I don't remember us ever allowing you into our group." Crunching his knuckles together, Alpha says the following in a calm yet authoritative tone. "You're right, how rude of me. I guess saving all of your lives, being the Commander of the most powerful organization on the planet, and being an all around nice guy is just not a good enough reason to allow me to join you guys."

Rubbing the back of his head, Alex now feels like a total douche for even thinking what he just said. "Well...when you put it that way..." He says in an embarrassed tone. "Don't worry about it kid. You are probably exhausted due to what went down today, and just aren't thinking straight because of it." Stretching his arms out and opening his mouth up wide to let out a massive yawn, the boy finds himself agreeing with the Goomba's observation. "I guess you are right...I'm going to retreat to Mario's house for the night, g'night everyone." With that, Alex departs from the rest of the group. Luigi and Mallow follow after him, just to make sure he makes it back to the house safely without getting ambushed. This leaves Gemini, Driad, Geno, and Mario with Alpha. "Well, you ready to head inside Mario?" Alpha asks. The plumber gives the Commander a nod in response. "Mm-hmm." With that, the two of them head into the building. As the remaining three heroes give a quick look at each other before going their separate ways, Gemini hears his Commander's voice.

"You stay right there Lieutenant. We are going to talk as soon as I am done here." Letting out a heavy sigh, Gemini stands still and turns towards the lab, folding his arms out in front of his chest and tapping his foot on the ground. "Well, I guess now is a better time than any to think over the battle we just had...I'll have to talk to Driad later..." As he closes his eyes to think to himself, a random Toad innocently walks behind him. Gemini's train of thought is interrupted and his eyelids are forced open when the Toad walks into the side of the invisible chopper and falls back first onto the ground. "Sigh...I suppose I better help him out..." Gemini says, rubbing his forehead in annoyance due to the fact that he saw this coming. He then walks over to the fallen Toad and preps his hands to rejuvenate him by creating sparks between the fingers.

As Mario and Alpha descend the stairway into E. Gadd's lab they hear a loud buzzing noise echoing through the hallway, followed by the sound of a hammer pounding on metal, and last but not least a few electronic clicking sounds. Entering the lab itself, the two heroes see that the lights are dimmed, and E. Gadd is standing over some kind of hydraulic pump with a welding mask on his face and a torch in his right hand. After he puts the finishing touches on the handles he shuts the torch off and lifts his mask off from over his ash covered face. "Cough, cough...Well, that should do it. Now just to wait for Mario to return and..." Before the elderly professor can finish, the lights are quickly turned on, cast it's brightness upon the dark lab. E. Gadd turns his head around towards the front door to see who has arrived, and a look at the two heroes requires E. Gadd to adjust his glasses just to make sure that he isn't seeing things.

"Well well, if it isn't the Commander of the M.S.I..." The elderly professor wipes his greasy hands off with a rag and places it on the table in front of him, he then walks around the table and approaches the two heroes. Mario turns his head towards Alpha and points at E. Gadd with his right hand. "You know him?" "Yeah, we've met on a few occasions before. Usually I meet up with him to discuss matters involving the planet, or to get my arms repaired." Extending his hand to greet the professor, the two shake as a greeting to each other, then retract their hands and get ready to talk. "In return for his services, I supply E. Gadd with rare parts to help him in creating more powerful machines. I assume you heard of the professor receiving hydraulic parts from a 'Delivery Company', yes?" Thinking back to the day that he started his adventure, Mario vaguely remembers E. Gadd being on the phone with someone else. Nodding his head, Alpha lets out a little chuckle as he gets ready to reveal the truth to Mario. "Well, E. Gadd was on the phone with me that day, my boy."

Thinking things over while scratching the top of his hat, Mario realizes how much sense that makes. "Hmm...So when you told me about the delivery company..." "Oh-hohoho. I just was making sure to not reveal the existence of the secret M.S.I. Base. I see that there is little point to that now, as you two seem to have gotten acquainted with each other just recently." Thinking to himself once again, Mario realizes that the Professor and Gemini never met at all after he joined their group. By all means, he had only known about the M.S.I. for the last three days now. "Yeah, we have met just recently professor. In fact, he saved our lives." The professor rubs his chin, intrigued by what Mario just said. "Saved your lives? Oh ho ho, it seems as though some exciting events transpired for your group today. Have a seat and you can tell me all about it."

All three of them walk to the table that E. Gadd was working at, and each one of them take a seat on a separate chair. Both Mario and Alpha explain their own sides to the story, as the stout Professor sits and listens with a great deal of interest. A half hour passes by quickly. By the time the two are done, E. Gadd simply adjusts his glasses and lets out his signature laugh. "Well well, an intrepid tale indeed. So I assume that the Ice Stone is currently in your possession then?" Mario shakes his head. "No, I gave it to Alex, along with all the other stones." "Very well, then that just leaves the Fire Stone to be claimed...However, there is something I must mention before I give you the location."

"Yeah?" Alpha says, wondering just what the professor is about to say. "Well, I continued doing translation work on the stone tablet, and what I found surprised me..." E. Gadd bends down and reaches below the table, pulling out the stone tablet from underneath and slamming it down on a blank space on the top. He moves his hand towards the bottom text, which is engraved in a white color. "I had to look DEEP into the old Plit languages to translate this one. This one states the following; 'In secret it lies, out of sight. A temple forged, the torment-' There is a chunk of stone missing where the last bit of the sentence should be, so I cannot say what this means exactly. Considering that this phrase appears on the same tablet that the location of the other temples is on, I assume it might have something to do with a possible eighth temple."

Alpha raises an eye to this theory. "That's preposterous professor. No disrespect, mind you, but what reason could there possibly be for there to be an eighth temple?" As E. Gadd puts the tablet away he lets out an exhausted sigh, as the object in question is too heavy for such an old man like him to carry twice in the span of a couple minutes. "I can not say. You forget that this is just a theory, unless one were to somehow find the missing chunk of the tablet, then there is no way to know if my theory holds any water..." "I see..." The Commander folds his arms out in front of him, placing his elbows onto the table and thinking about the tablet's words. "In the mean time, Mario, if you may..." Holding his hand out, the plumber understands just what to do next. He reaches into his overall pocket, pulling out the iGadd and handing it over to the elderly professor. As usual, E. Gadd takes the device over to his computer and places it into the hard drive so it can download the data needed for the next temple.

After the process ends, E. Gadd pops the device out of the slot and walks over to Mario, handing the device back to the plumber. Once the device is tucked away in his pocket, E. Gadd has some words to say to Mario. "Mario, in the time you were gone, I was able to modify F.L.U.D.D. so it's water spraying capabilities are increased tenfold. I figured with you taking a trip to the next temple, the Inferno Cave, that you might end up needing this again." "Thanks a lot professor, but what about the possibility of it getting damaged?" Mario asks. "Oh ho ho." E. Gadd laughs, accepting his friend's question with a great sense of enthusiasm. "I thought you would ask that. Not a problem my boy. With a simple press of a button..." E. Gadd presses down on a button that lies on the top of F.L.U.D.D.'s yellow nozzle. The hydro unit hops into the air, and in an instance it shrinks down to the shape of a small yellow cube with a red button on top.

E. Gadd picks this cube off from on top of the table and hands it over to Mario. "Keep that in your pockets, and whenever you need it just press the red button. It will grow back to it's normal, manageable size." The plumber grasps the cube in the palm of his right hand, and places it inside his other pocket. Giving the pocket a small pat on the outside, Mario reminisces of the last time he had to use F.L.U.D.D. "Good times..." Alpha has finished thinking about the theory at this point, and promptly jumps off the chair, giving E. Gadd a farewell wave of the hand. "Well professor, it was nice seeing you again. But me and Mario are going to retreat for the night. Got to understand that it's been a long day and all for the entire group." As the Commander heads towards the door, his arms are folded behind his back once again. Mario lets out a sigh, his body still feeling numb from the battle they just had. "Alpha has a good point, I'm feeling a little drowsy myself. Thanks for giving me F.L.U.D.D. professor." Mario thus says, nodding his head out of gratitude.

"It's not a problem Mario. It's the least I could do for you, and it's definitely the least I could do for the world..." E. Gadd mutters the last part to himself, which Mario fails to hear. The plumber gets off the chair and begins to walk towards the door, when the stout Professor has one last thing to say to him. "Mario. Bowser will quite likely be in this final temple. Don't do anything reckless if he ends up using the Princess as a hostage." Those words plant themselves into Mario's brain, and then he finds himself thinking back to he Star Festival that was held a while back. He remembers standing in front of Peach's Castle, as both he and Peach watched the shooting stars in the night sky fall down onto the ground in the form of Star Bits. Scenes of that day flash through Mario's head, but the most important part is when Peach turns to look at him, and utters something that echoes throughout his mind. _"You'll never give up on me, or the Kingdom, right Mario?"_ Mario turns his head towards E. Gadd and gives him a reassuring nod. He then proceeds to head up the stairs...

While Mario and Alpha were meeting with E. Gadd, Driad went towards the woods near Peach's Castle. As he examines the rough bark of the trees, he thinks back to the violent battle had with the Ice Golem, and how his actions frightened Alex. Moving his vines towards the front of his face, Driad clenches his fist, angered by his inability to fully understand just what is wrong with him. "Darn it!" The Crayzee Dayzee thrusts his left vine out, punching right into the bark and cracking it in two. "I thought it would be great to remember my past, but all it's done has left me with some bothersome question on my mind...Was that wolf form a one time only thing? If it's not, how will I ever prevent myself from brutally attacking others like I did before? ..." Driad laments over his thoughts, slowly moving his hand out from within the tree and draping both arms down along the ground. Closing his eyes, the flower lets out a quiet, anguished sigh. "My existence, is it a blessing to others, or a curse to the world?" Unable to think of an answer, Driad decides to just give up for the night and head off to bed. Thus, the confused flower leaves the empty forest alone, wondering about things that very few on the planet would be able to relate to...

With Geno, he is standing at the very top of the Shooting Star Summit, with his head positioned so his eyes are staring at the stars up above. A pillar of light radiates from the center and reaches so far up into the sky that it seems to be endless. "There is no way the secret of Driad's true form will be kept as such for long." The doll says to himself. _"Indeed. From the events that transpired today, we have determined that you, Alex Whiter, Gemini, and Driad are the only ones who have knowledge of his power_." Eldstar's familiar voice speaks to Geno from afar. Though no one else is around, such a thing would not matter, as only Geno can hear the eldest Star Spirit's voice. "Still, it's not like Driad regaining his memories is a bad thing...If anything, it will be useful in the battles to come."

_"Indeed." _Eldstar replies, but something about his tone causes Geno to worry. "...Elder Star Spirit. If I may ask a question. How long has Cackletta existed on this planet for?" There is a brief period of silence, making the star warrior grow slightly impatient. "Elder, without the intent of sounding rude here, I would like to point out that such info could end up being important for figuring out her motives." Another few seconds of silence pass, but afterwards Geno finally hears something from Eldstar. _"Very well Geno...We've kept this secret from everyone, but during times like these, we Star Spirits feel that for the sake of world we shall tell you the truth about Cackletta..."_ Geno lets out a little smile, happy at the Star Spirits' co-operance. "Thank you Elder."

"_You see Geno, Cackletta is...Abnormal."_ "Well yeah, she is a witch after all...A deformed bean person." _"Except that she bears no relation to the people of the Beanbean Kingdom."_ Geno's mind reacts suddenly to this information. "Wait, that's impossible. Her origin should clearly lie in that Kingdom...shouldn't it?" _"To those who have lived only in recent times, Cackletta would come off as nothing more than a Bean Person gone mad, but the truth is that Cackletta has existed long before this generation...She has been on Plit for two-thousand years." _"Two-thousand years?" Geno exclaims, this news coming off as incredibly unsettling. "But, that means that..." _"Yes, she has been lurking around since the Overlord sealed his powers away, when both his and the Dark King's bodies had departed from the universe."_

The doll places his hand onto his chin, rubbing it while his mind is deep in thought. "But, if she has been around that long, then why has she not tried to take the element stones for herself by this point? She seems like the type whose entire plan would revolve around the domination of all living things, and those stones would be perfect for her to acquire for those goals..." _"We do not understand ourselves, but the fact that she never once went near the temples until just recently makes us believe that she did not know the locations of the temples at all. Either way, did our answer help you out in any way, Geno?" _Geno thinks over what the Star Spirits just said, but all he has are more question than answers now. "Yes, and no. On one hand, I now know that Cackletta has been on this planet for as long as the temples have been around for, which explains how she knew of the Crystal King's origins. On the other hand, I fail to see why she hasn't just gone for the stones herself...It's not like she didn't have plenty of time to do so..."

_"Geno..." _Eldstar quietly tells the puppet as he was concentrating on what Cackletta's plan might be. His voice is enough to break Geno's train of thought. _"Yes, Elder Star Spirit?" "We as Star Spirits, cannot ever bear 'Sons' or 'Daughters', the star kids that live in Star Haven are our students at best. But you, Geno, even though you were created by the Element Overlord and placed under our care, I have treated you as the closest thing I could have to a 'Son'." _Geno is taken aback by Eldstar's words. "This is pretty sudden of you to say Elder Star Spirit..." _"I just wanted you to know that I love you Geno, and I simply don't want you to try and take down Cackletta by yourself. She is more powerful than you realize_..." Geno lowers his head, in his mind he feels a strange emotion building up inside of him that he has never experienced before. As if he wants to cry, but he dismisses that as an impossibility, for his body is made of wood.

But what happens next is something that not even the wise Star Herald could comprehend. From the bottom of his eyes, droplets of water appear and begin to slowly trickle down his smooth wooden cheeks. Geno moves his hand towards his cheek to feel the water coming down his face, noticing that it all feels so real..."But that can't be right..." He says to himself. _"Is something the matter Geno?"_ Eldstar asks. Wiping the tears off of his face, the doll realizes that the Star Spirits infused his body with things that make him seem more like an organic being. He also realizes that this explains why he could feel the cold in Shiver City, how Gemini was able to reawaken him after the Crystal King battle, and the tears he experienced just now. "Nothing is wrong fat-I mean, Elder. I thank you for this discussion, and I will contact you again once the entire mission is complete." With that, Geno turns around and begins his descent down the summit...

Back outside E. Gadd's lab, Gemini has finished restoring the Toad back to his conscious state, and after thanking him for the help walks off in a random direction. "Well, it's always nice to help out those in need." "Lieutenant!" Alpha's voice causes the Koopa to quickly turn his head around and look at his Commander with a great deal of attention, and as the Goomba walks over to Gemini as he gives out an honorary salute to him. "At ease Gemini, I know you probably assume that I'm about to lecture you on the consequences of your actions, or that I'm going to preach endlessly about the sacrifices made in the past and how they have allowed you to exist today, but all I have to say is this..." Alpha walks past Gemini and glances over his shoulders. "Why have you not used that power at all?"

The Lieutenant lets out a sigh. He knows for a fact that he cannot dodge the question the Commander has given him. Clenching his right fist and holding it up to the front of his face, he gets ready to explain his reasons. "I've had this power of mine for six years Commander, even so, the scars of what I accidentally did the day this power was bequeathed to me has yet to vanish." Gemini points to the red scarf on his arm. "This scarf is a memory of that day, a way to remember that I am still the same Koopa I was before, and a reminder that I still have a long way to go before I can return to my home village..." "I know that, but that tells me nothing about why you haven't used that power recently. You almost died three times in situations where that power would've proven useful." "I needed them to trust me, if I had used that power, I felt that that would be impossible."

"So you thought lying to them would be a better idea?" Alpha turns around and pats Gemini on the shoulder. "I commend you for thinking out all the possibilities of your actions, but one should not resort to lying to protect themselves. In the end, lies like that cause more harm than they do good." Moving his hand off of Gemini's shoulder, the Commander quietly says something to himself that is inaudible to Gemini. "So Lieutenant, let us be serious now, and fight to the best of our abilities when we reach the next temple, ok?" Alpha extends his hand, hoping for an agreement with his Lieutenant. Gemini thinks back to the times that he almost got killed in the past two days, the fear he experienced as he was helpless to fight off the Crystal King, and that his Commander had to come and bail him out. Six years, and he feels as though he has gotten nowhere at all if his Commander still has to save his skin. It was time to stop beating himself up for being useless and do something about it. It was decided, he would use the power hidden within him. With a quick turnaround, the Koopa extends his hand out to grasp his Commander's extending palm. The two shake hands, with both of them understanding each other perfectly. "To a new day, Lieutenant." Alpha says in calm, happy tone of voice. "To a new day, Commander." Gemini responds, cracking a pleasant looking smile across his face...

After all has been said and done that night, all the heroes retreat to their beds. Alpha and Gemini slept inside the chopper, Driad sleeps in E. Gadd solar energy producing pot to recharge, Geno is wandering around the outskirts of Toad Town due to his inability to sleep, and Mario, Luigi, Alex, and Mallow rest inside Mario's house. The hours of the night quietly pass by, the setting moon being replaced slowly by the rising sun, the skies changing from it's dark state due to the presence of the sun's reddish glow. Inside Mario's house, Alex is resting comfortably inside a red sleeping bag that the plumber just so happened to have hanging around. For the boy, it feels good to be sleeping normally instead of spending the night recovering from battle injuries like the night before. However, he will not be resting for long. He feels a cold, metal finger on the skin of his cheek, and that causes him to jolt awake instantly. Before he can scream, the hand that the finger is attached to covers up his mouth. It's revealed to the boy that Alpha is the one who woke him up. The Goomba takes his pointer finger to his mouth and lets out a little hush, signaling to Alex that he doesn't want anyone else to be woken up by his arrival.

Once Alpha removes his hand from the boy's mouth, he takes a deep breath and then breathes out, closing his eyelids in annoyance for the Goomba's sudden appearance. "You shouldn't have woken me up like that Alpha." He says and with his body not fully awake yet, his tone comes off as a bit drowsy. He does however manage to keep his voice down enough so only Alpha can hear him. "Sorry, but I can't have you waking the others up. I just came to ask you one quick question, about the boy called Joe Dark." Alex lets out a yawn as Alpha talks, rubbing his forehead with his right hand and smacking his lips a few times. "Why? Geno already killed him, I don't see why it would matter to tell you anything..."

"When I file away the report for this entire quest, I want to have all the details present and accounted for, that's all." The boy lets out another yawn. "Fine, ask away..." "Do you know just why he was so adamant as far as trying to kill you goes?" "I was asked that question before, I still have the same answer that I did then. I know nothing about why he hated me..." The Commander raises a brow in suspicion, not fully believing Alex on this matter. "You positive?" He asks quietly. "Yes, I am...Now can you let me rest a little bit more?" Alpha sighs, and folds his arms behind his back. "Very well kid, I'll let you finish your sleep. It's only 6:00 A.M. , so there is no reason to get out there now..." With that, the boy lets out one final yawn and falls back down onto the sleeping bag, his body instantly going back to sleep as soon as he lands. Alpha begins to walk out of the house, thinking to himself about Alex's response. "Alex was not lying...his tones, his manner of movement while talking...But that's not good, Joe Dark's body isn't in the desert that they fought him at anymore...Which can only mean that he is still alive..." Alpha grits his teeth as he exits through the front door of the house. "I get the feeling that this planet is going to be suffering through some dark times soon enough...But I'll be ready, just like I always have been."

_Next Time: Full Steam Ahead_


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31: Demon's Rapture**

Once it hits 8:00 A.M., we find the heroes gathered outside of E. Gadd's lab. Alpha and Gemini walk out of the invisible copter, with the Koopa stretching his arms out and releasing a deep yawn. A sweat drop forms on Mario's forehead as he sees them walk out. "Ummm...you kept the invisibility cloak up on the copter all night long?" Alpha lifts a brow up, questioning why Mario asked him this question. "Yeah? Your point being...what now?" To respond, the plumber simply lifts one finger up, pointing behind where Alpha currently stands. The Goomba turns his head around and notices about five Toads lying on their backs, knocked out due to walking into the copter. "..." Alpha takes his left hand and rubs the skin on his forehead, showing annoyance over this event. "I guess a lot more people were moving around this town at night than I had originally thought..." Alex glares at the Commander. "You mean you didn't notice these Toads on your way back from Mario's house?"

Mario raises his right eyebrow when he hears Alex's comment. "You were in my house?" His comment directed towards Alpha, who quickly sighs at the boy's foolishness. "I just entered your house to ask Alex a quick question. I took my leave right after I got an answer, I promise." The sincerity in Alpha's voice causes Mario to stop pushing the issue, though there is still an ounce of suspicion present in his voice. "Very well, I believe you." The Commander then lets out a little grin, proceeding to open a flap on his left arm and pressing down on a red button that lied underneath it. A loud car alarm goes off, along with a powerful robotic voice coming from the copter. "IDENTIFY YOURSELF, IDENTIFY YOURSELF!" It exclaims. As the rest of the group plugs their ears, the loud noises pierce the ear drums of the unconscious Toads, forcing them awake immediately. Plugging their ears, the fungi all run for cover, thinking that these loud noises mark the end of the world. "I really got to get rid of this feature..." Alpha rubs his forehead again in annoyance. "OVERRIDE CODE 30Z6G" He exclaims. The copter recognizes the code and tone of voice instantly, the loud noises shutting down at that exact second along with the invisibility cloak that surrounded it. The group removes their hands from their ears.

"What was THAT?" Mallow exclaims. "Safety protocol, just trying to ensure that no one uses the copter besides me." As Alpha shuts the flap on his arm, he begins to walk towards the copter. "If the code isn't said in exactly one minute, then a miniature nuclear bomb I planted inside the engine will go off, destroying both the person attempting to steal my copter, and the vehicle itself." Alex's eyes widen when he hears the exact defensive measures taken to protect the copter. "A NUKE? Are you mad Alpha?" The Commander jumps into the copter, turning his head towards the boy and gives a quick reply. "A MINI nuke, Alex. Don't worry, it's small enough that it will only cover the area around the copter." Alex breathes a sigh of relief, brushing the few sweatdrops that appeared on his head off to the side. "Thank heavens..." With that, the boy has another question on his mind. "So just where is the final temple located at anyways?"

Mario quickly pulls the iGadd out of his pockets and pulls the map up on it. "From what I am understanding, it should be...Hmmm, how strange." Luigi peeks over his brother's shoulders, wondering just what is going on. "Something wrong brother?" "All I see is a red 'X' floating over a bunch of smoke..." Alpha, intrigued by Mario's comment, quickly snags the iGadd from out of his grip and takes a look at it. "Hahaha...So that's where he decided to hide the final temple." The Commander hands the device back to Mario, who looks at him with a confused expression on his face. "Well, let's get into my copter. Our next destination is the Nova Cesspool..." Alpha calmly jumps into his copter, while Gemini gets a concerned look on his face. "Wait, you can't seriously be planning on taking us there..." He then hops in as well. The rest of the group, not having a single clue as to what the two of them are talking about, jump into the copter and get ready to take off. Alex sits down on the nearby leather sit and spins around in it with his arms held behind his head. "So what exactly is the Nova Cesspool anyways?"

Alpha hops onto the pilot's seat, with Gemini acting as his co-pilot on the other seat. As the Goomba flicks a switch to shut the doors, he turns on the intercom to speak to his passengers. "We are about to lift off, any and all passengers who have second thoughts about wanting to accompany me on this mission should leave the plane now! This is not a free trip to the local day care, for I do not accept ANY wimps on this copter!" No words emerge from the lips of the group, and with an overly cheerful grin appearing on Alpha's face he presses a button on the control panel to activate the engine. The rotor blades slowly begin to spin, and the copter starts to lift off of the ground with the wind coming from the spinning blades causing the dirt on the ground around it to fly up into the air.

When the copter rises at least high enough off the ground so that they don't ram into any buildings, Alpha flips open a panel that lies next to the button he just pressed, revealing a small round power outlet. Alpha takes his hand and points one finger at the outlet, a small plug-in appearing from the tip which he uses to connect with the machinery of his copter. After five seconds a few electronic clicking noises are heard. The Commander pulls away from the outlet and the flap automatically shuts itself. "Coordinates downloaded. Are you ready Co-Pilot?" Gemini lays back in his chair and closes his eyes. "Ready as you want me to be Commander." Alpha turns his chair around and quickly presses the button that lies in the center of the wheel before jumping out of his seat. Mario nervously raises his right hand, pointing at the pilot's seat out of fear. "Wait...shouldn't you be controlling the copter?"

Alpha walks over to where the plumber is standing, and gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, the copter is AI controlled. I made it that way so I can chat with the soldiers that ride along with me, get to know them a little more." Driad tilts his head as his eyes show off the curiosity that lurks inside of him. "But wait a second...Don't you know everything about us?" Alpha suddenly bursts into laughter, greatly amused by the flower warrior's question. "Hahaha...I may pay attention to a wide variety of areas around the world, but it's not like I do it 24/7 Driad...I'm not Santa Claus after all." Alex, who is still spinning around in the chair, is a little annoyed by the lack of resolution to his question. "Hello? I still want to know what the Nova Cesspool is. Out of all the Mario games I played back on Earth, I've never heard of that particular location..."

Alpha stops laughing and quickly turns to look at the boy, his single eye glaring at the boy and sending a rather foreboding chill down his spine. "Well Mr. Whiter, I was going to get around to answering that eventually, but since you seem to be incapable of keeping your vocal chords quiet for even a single millisecond, I'll just answer you now." The copter begins to quickly fly through the air as Alpha starts to talk about the Cesspool. "Simply put, the Nova Cesspool is the worst possible place to be on this planet. If you were to want to kill someone you showed a great amount of hatred for, someone would probably direct you to that toxin filled wasteland. Only one type of creature has the genetic traits that enables would enable them to survive the environment without any negative consequences. Anyone else who would want to go through the lands would need to take proper safety precautions to live. Due to the thick toxic clouds that exist throughout the land, I have never been able to observe over this place in my Command Sphere..."

"And what creature is capable of surviving the dangers that plague the wasteland?" Geno calmly asks. "The Koopa." Alpha replies without a single pause in his voice. Mario is horrified, as he realizes that Bowser might have already gone through that area with Peach captured in his Clown Copter, he then clenches his fist in rage. "Bowser..." The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom lets out an angered growl, which Alpha is quick to catch onto. "Mario, I know Bowser is probably in that area currently, but do you honestly think that he would let Peach be harmed?" Mario takes few moments to calm down and think over what the Goomba just said. With those words in mind, Mario releases the press that he had applied to his hand and lets out a sigh of relief. "No, you're right. I wasn't thinking there…" "Sure you weren't thinking, but that's just the type of effect anger has on a person." Alpha thus replies.

"So wait a second." Alex stomps his left foot onto the ground to stop himself from spinning around. "How are you expecting US to traverse this terrain if it's as deadly as you say it is?" "You got six of the element stones, correct? They should be recharged by now, so you can just use the Wind/Sky Stone to create a barrier that will cleanse the air around us all...Save for Gemini, of course." Alex quickly grabs said stone out from his pants' pocket and flips it up into the air, moving his hand towards it to grab it and grasp it tightly. "Sounds like a plan to me!" Excited for what is to come, a grin appears across the boy's face. Satisfied with his enthusiasm, Alpha decides to talk to the rest of the group before the copter arrives at their destination.

An hour passes, the trip to the wastelands going by nice and smoothly without a single obstacle distracting them from their journey. Eventually, the carbon dioxide clouds that spew from the geysers below starts to cover up the windows on the front of copter. Mallow is instantly able to figure out what the clouds are made out of just by looking at them. "Carbon dioxide..." Alpha turns around and begins to walk towards the pilot's seat. "That's the ticket there Mallow, good observation." He replies, holding his right hand out to pat the backside of the chair that Gemini is in. The Koopa quickly wakes up upon feeling his chair vibrating and adjusts his vision to see the toxic clouds in front of him. "But that's not the only danger that plagues this land..."

The copter begins to fall down towards the ground. With the windows blocked the group is unable to determine what their surroundings are like, though something tells them that they are better off not knowing at all. Upon making contact with the ground, Alpha deactivates the vehicle, which in turn causes the blades to slow down and eventually stop. The boy gets out of his seat and walks over to the group, taking the Wind Stone out of his pocket once more and activating it, which causes a thin sheet of pure air to surround all but Gemini. Alpha and the Lieutenant jump out of their respective chairs and join the group near the doors of the copter. "Alright, if my theories are correct we shouldn't have to worry about the toxins once we enter the cave itself, so we got one hour to fight the outer guardian and get inside." The Commander quickly adjusts a few loose bolts on his right arm, then uses said arm to open the door in front of them. The metal slides perfectly into the gap that existed beside it, revealing the barren landscapes of the Cesspool.

"Cracks with lava in them...Geysers that spew those poisonous clouds...I can understand why only the Koopas can live here...To them, this place must be a paradise, a filth filled one, but a paradise none the same." Geno steps one foot outside of the copter's protective field and finds himself able to breathe freely. Taking a deep breath in, the only thing that passes into his mouth is the clean air that is currently surrounding him. Another breath out blows away some of the carbon dioxide clouds that are floating in front of his wooden body. "Alright, the barriers are working." The doll waves his right hand at the group, signaling them to come out of the copter. Each one of the members jumps out of the flying vehicle, and once Alpha exits the doors automatically close. "We hope you enjoyed the flight, Commander." A calm robotic tone speaks from the copter. "Alright, I parked us as close to the cave as I possible could. I don't want the copter to become collateral damage when we fight the guardian after all..."

"Good thinking Commander." Gemini says, complimenting his superior officer for his ability to plan ahead. "Now, it should be a simple five minute walk to reach the cave, that will give us the remaining fifty-five minutes to defeat whatever guardian is waiting outside the cave." Alpha puts his arms behind his back and begins to casually walk through the toxic clouds completely unfazed. "You have your orders, let us complete the mission without any casualties." With those words, the rest of the group began their long trek through the wasteland. Though they didn't have to worry about the carbon dioxide, they still had to keep their eyes open to avoid the lava that continuously spews out from the cracks below. "I really don't understand how Koopas can survive in this environment..." Mallow says with a questioning tone. "I mean, I can somewhat understand how they survive the carbon dioxide clouds, but they would surely be fried by the constant lava that comes from the ground..."

"It's a mystery to everyone Mallow, all that the people of this planet know is that there have been sightings of Koopas in this area before, and sometimes volunteers have come here and tried to live for approximately twenty-four hours. Only the Koopa volunteers have managed to live without any negative side effects. So somehow, they have a way of dealing with the lava around here." Alpha continues to focus on the path before them after feeding Mallow's curiosity. It's a short walk, but eventually the group arrives at the front of a black cave, further examination of it would show that it's entire structure is made up of nothing but coal.

"Coal...by itself it is nothing, but by using the right amount of fire, you can turn the darkest material on the planet into the bright and elegant diamond." As Luigi begins to walk towards the cave itself in an attempt to snag a piece of coal for later use, he quickly notices a giant mass of hardened lava lying off to the left of where he stands. "Hmm?" Intrigued by the placement of this mass, the man in green begins to slowly walks towards it, as the rest of the group starts to approach the cave. "Hold on a second guys...You should take a look at this." The group does not hear Luigi, but instead they continue onward towards the cave. "HEY!" The man in green turns around and yells out to the group, but once they turn their attention towards him the ground begins to quake.

"Darn it Luigi, you woke the guardian up!" Driad exclaims. Luigi slams the palm of his hand onto his face in response to the Crayzee Dayzee's ridiculous comment, then moves a little bit to the left so the group can check out the mound of hardened lava behind him. "Wait, what is that exactly?" Geno asks, his mind becoming increasingly worried for some reason. "That's the outer guardian of this temple...Look closely at it." The man in green gets out of the way so Geno can take a closer look. As the wooden doll cautiously moves towards the mass, he turns his head to look at Luigi with his eyelids closed slightly. After turning his head back to stare at the lava mass, the star warrior is horrified by what he finds. Lying in the very center of the mass is a single eyeball, which has now been dehydrated due to a prolonged existence in this heated environment. On top of the fact that it lays motionless, the very sight of the green blood oozing from behind the eyeball sickens the star herald. "If this creature is dead...then what could possibly..." Geno is unable to finish his sentence, for at that very moment the ground in front of them starts to crack open.

Rocks are flung in all directions as a massive creature bursts through the floor, a few of the stones having lava wrapped around it, but all in all none of them manage to touch the group. A train whistle sound can be heard blaring through the air as the creature emerges, and the speed at which it is moving causes a massive gust of wind to blow away all of the carbon dioxide clouds that can be seen in a 1/2 mile radius. After covering their faces to prevent any dust from blowing into their eyes, the heroes move their arms back to where they were before, looking in disbelief at the gargantuan creature that is flying in front of them. They are currently being stared down by a giant serpentine dragon with a row of numerous metallic spheres growing from its body. The scales on it have beautiful swirl designs and his underside lacks any scales thus exposing his pink skin. The creature has a few jagged rocks protruding from his head, and he has a large bulbous chin that has numerous scars on it. The creature's nose alone dwarfs the heroes in size, his frenzied red pupils glaring brightly at his targets.

Mario and Luigi are instantly able to remember just what the creature in question is, and suddenly start to worry when they see the metal plates that cover it's highly vulnerable red ulcers. "Bowser brought along Gobbleguts?" They exclaim, which Alpha catches onto this immediately. "Gobbleguts? I thought those creatures were only capable of living in space!" The Commander is quickly perturbed by these developments that have been set before him, and decides to quickly examine the massive creature while it remains immobile. "Yes, the Gobbleguts species is usually plagued by a powerful ulcer disease that leaves them vulnerable to attack. Destruction of all six bulges would allow one to slay the creature, but in reality, that's not the only way they can be killed. They live in space, usually around small planets because otherwise the gravity from giant planets would cause their bulges to burst instantly. Those metal plates that Bowser put on this creature must somehow prevent the bulges from bursting...This could be troublesome if we don't find a conclusive way to remove the plates." The fact that Alpha is worried about this situation only increases the fear that currently resides in the heroes' minds.

Gobblegut finishes examining the group and opens it's mouth up wide to release another train whistle sound from deep within it's body. "What's the strategy to take this thing down then?" Alex yells out to Alpha. The Goomba can barely hear the boy over the sound of the whistle, but tries to come up with a response to what he thinks he said. "Just try not to get eaten for now, and give me a moment to perform reconnaissance!" Alex gives Alpha a blank look, then sighs and proceeds to fly up into the air while slowly shaking his head back and forth. He figures that while he's up in the air, he'll be able to move much faster than if he were to stay on the ground. Of course, all his flight does is make him Gobblegut's prime target. Though the monumental beast pokes his head to the left to notice the little gnat of a human, Alex feels the need to taunt him by waving four of his finger towards his palm as it is lifted in front of his chest. The dragon begins to move through the air to chase after the boy, it's tail brushing and tearing up the ground below it as it begins to ascend. Alex swiftly turns around and watches as the dragon begins chomping it's jaws constantly as it creeps closer to him. Quickly freaking out, the boy flies off to try and shake Gobbleguts off his tail, but it seems as though the mobility of the creature is much better than he had originally anticipated it would be.

On the ground, Alpha is taking advantage of Alex being the bait at this time to explain his plan to the rest of the group. "Alright, now obviously the metal plates pose a problem for us. I got no weapons in my arsenal that can melt through that stuff currently, and I'm pretty certain that Mario's little fireballs won't be able to do jack to them either. So here's my idea..." Geno raises his hand, having some objections to what Alpha is doing. Alpha closes his eyes and nods his head. "Alright, what is it Geno?" The doll lowers his hand down to his chest, crossing his arms in annoyance. "I'm sorry, but ever since you've forced yourself into this group, you've done nothing but order us around." Alpha closes his eyelids for a brief moment and sighs in the face of Geno's comment, but after a light chuckle he opens them back up and quickly raises his head to look the doll straight in the eyes. "I don't know where you got the balls to say what you just said, Star Herald Geno. But wherever you got them from I'm glad you have them. Even though you stood up to me, I still have to make one point clear. In the single day that I've been with you guys, I have managed to save all of your hind ends from certain death, and gave you the knowledge necessary to survive in this environment. And in that time I have not once put my own needs ahead of the rest of the group. But again I will say that I'm happy to hear some objections to my authority, and I will try and avoid shoving my thoughts into your eardrums in the immediate future, alright?"

Geno stays silent. He is happy with Alpha's response, for it proves that both himself and the Commander think the same way when it comes to the needs of others. "I have nothing else to say then...Proceed, Commander." "Very well then...Ok, so this is my plan." While Alpha talks with the group, Alex continues flying high in the air to ensure that Gobblegut's tail doesn't end up smashing the group through the ground. "You know, I thought it would be cool to someday fight a dragon..." With a panicked look in his eyes, the boy turns his head around to find that creature in question is still trying to make him his next meal, but the dragon is now a little closer than he was before. "BUT HOW I CAN I FIGHT THIS THING WITH THOSE DAMN METAL PLATES COVERING IT'S ONLY WEAKSPOT?" Alex is quick to pull the Earth Stone out of his pockets, but remembers that he has to wait a few more hours before he can use it again. "...Right...I shouldn't try and force the stones to work. All that would probably do is piss off the spirits that live inside..." The boy puts the stone away and performs a quick 180 to continue to avoid Gobblegut's chomping jaws.

Back on the ground, Alpha has finished discussing his plan. He then turns to look Gemini straight in the eyes. "You are going to have to use it Lieutenant. Are you up for this?" Without even giving a second thought to the question, the Koopa nods his head. "Excellent. Everyone get into their positions. Gemini, good luck." Alpha and his Lieutenant exchange salutes to each other, then the rest of the group walks off, leaving Gemini to stare up at Gobbleguts. Alex is just about to be eaten by the dragon, and in desperation yells out to Gemini for help. "HEY! ARE YOU FINALLY GOING TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP OUT HERE?" With tons of sweat dripping down the boy's forehead due to the suffocating amounts of fear he is experiencing at this time, Gemini responds in a calm fashion, taking his right hand and raising it up into the air with sparks built up between the tips of two of his fingers. "Bang" Is all that emerges from Gemini's lips, followed up by a quick bolt of lightning shooting out from his hand. The bolt pricks the skin of Gobblegut. While no damage is dealt to the creature, the dragon decides to change it's target from Alex to Gemini in an instant. With a turn of it's head, the creature begins to madly chomp through the air as it approaches Gemini, who merely stands still and puts his hand down the back of his shell to reach for his trident.

"Gemini! Get out of the way!" Alex desperately exclaims while waving his right hand off to the side. The Koopa only grins in the face of this dangerous creature. "It's been a while since I've been able to have a little fun I suppose..." Emerging from Gemini's shell is a mass of golden slime. The slime trickles down the back part of the shell until it reaches the very center of it. Once there it begins to spread outwards from the shell itself, it's shape morphing into that of a pair of demonic wings. The pointed tips at the very end of the wings are colored black, and eventually the slime creates some membranes that connect Gemini's nervous system to the wings themselves. With everything in place for the wings, more slime spreads from inside of Gemini's shell to the top of his head. It begins to wrap around the upper half of Gemini's head to create a helmet for protection. A simple helmet in appearance, the only thing that makes it stand out are the curled demon horns sticking out from the sides, and the fact that the Koopa's eyes have now turned blood red while this helmet is on him. Once all is said and done, he pulls out the staff of his trident and extends the prongs out, completing the demonic ensemble.

Alex is taken aback by Gemini's sudden transformation. "A demon? Wait a second, how is it that…" Even with his questions the boy is still worried because Gemini is just a few seconds away from being devoured by Gobblegut. The Koopa calmly spins his trident out to the side of his body and with a slightly deeper tone in his voice, he says the following in mockery of the creature. "Hungry?" Before the dragon bites down on him, the demon Koopa quickly tosses his trident into the creature's mouth. The timing for this tactic is perfect, as the prongs pierce the upper layer of Gobblegut's mouth, and when the creature finishes closing it's mouth the lower end of the staff becomes wedged between its front teeth. Gemini kicks himself up off the ground and flies over the creature, charging black lightning spheres in the palms of his two hands as he begins to fly over the metal covered bulges. Gobbleguts rams through the ground at top speed. Unable to close it's jaw, the rocks that are torn up from the ground begin to fill up it's mouth.

"Eat pain." Without missing a beat, Gemini is able to fling a single orb down onto each and every one of the metallic plates and land on top of the beast's tail when he has finished. The metallic plates sparkle with the energy from the electricity. With every passing second, they become redder in color, the extreme heat of the sparks boiling the materials that make up the plates and causing them to start liquefying. Gemini's strength allows him to keep the tail pressed into the ground just by standing on it. It doesn't even look like he is trying as he does this too. By the time Alex is able to be dumbfounded by this strange turn of events, the plates have been completely melted off of Gobblegut's body. All that remains of them being puddles of liquid metal on the ground below, which quickly harden to trap the beast even further.

"NOW!" Alpha exclaims to the rest of the group. With the beast unable to move at all, the heroes each attack a different bulge on the body with different types of attacks. Mario and Luigi spin attack their separate bulges, Alpha fires off his Ion Cannon, Driad cuts the bulge with his leaf blade, Mallow casts Shocker, and Geno uses his Geno Whirl. All the bulges explode at the exact same time, spraying blood around the area. With it's only means of existence now destroyed, the creature's pupils fold back into it's head, and with a simple growl it dies in a puff of colored smoke. With the battle now at an end, Gemini puts his arms behind his back and sends a stream of electricity out towards the pile of rocks that his trident is currently positioned on top of. Pulling it back into his grip, the Koopa retracts the prongs and flips the staff around in the air for a few seconds before stuffing it back into his shell. The helmet and demon wings turn back into slime and retreat back into his shell.

Alex lands down on the ground next to Gemini. With a completely blank expression on Alex's face, the Koopa wonders just what is on his mind at this moment. Alex approaches the silent and cautious Lieutenant, and in an instant his eyes light up with a copious amount of joy buried inside of them. "THAT WAS SO COOL!" Alex exclaims, causing the Koopa to be taken aback by the glee expressed in his allies' voice. He never thought that the boy would so easily accept him in that form, in fact, Alex was in complete and total awe over it. "So why didn't you ever use that form before? I mean seriously, you probably could've kicked Joe Dark's ass half way to the moon and back if you had just busted that thing out from the start! I mean come on now, you used lightning that was so scalding hot that it burned though metal! HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT!" It takes a quick yet light slap in the face by Alpha to stop Alex from being so overexcited about Gemini's Demon form.

"We get it Alex, Gemini's demon form is really awesome, but that doesn't mean you have to start hyperventilating at the very sight of it!" Alpha starts ranting at Alex about the dangers of breathing in too much air, while Mario approaches Gemini with some questions of his own. "So Gemini, you mind explaining how you are able to do what you just did? Lightning powers, that demonic form, you certainly have something that makes you different from other Koopas, so please explain to us what that is." The Koopa sighs, realizing that he can't exactly dodge this question now that he did what he did. "It's a simple answer really...Inside my body lies not the heart of a Koopa, but the heart of a demon from another dimension." Gemini points at his chest as he answers the plumber's question.

"Hmmm...And how did this heart happen to get into your body in the first place?" Upon hearing Mario's next question, Alpha quickly turns his head around and shakes it back and forth while looking at Gemini. Picking up his Commander's signal, the Lieutenant comes up with a reply that doesn't answer the question but will be sure to leave Mario satisfied. "Sorry, that information is classified...Even if you guys are my friends." "Speaking of that, I remember now just what was the question I was going to ask you." Driad declares after suddenly remembers what he wanted to say. "You call us your friends, but by the sounds things you withheld this form until now because you were possibly afraid of us fearing you in that state. What the heck were you thinking man?" "I wasn't thinking Driad, and I apologize for my inability to realize the error of withholding that form until today...It's like I said to Alpha last night, six years working for him and I still don't get what it means to accept my powers..."

"With great power comes great responsibility..." Alex's words catch the Koopa's interest. "...Heh, those words sound like they came from someone who knows what they talking about...And they hold a great deal of truth as well. Thanks Alex, I feel...a little bit better now after hearing that." "Well, now that that is all said and done." Mario points towards the coal cave entrance behind him. "Gobblegut's existence is all the proof I need to determine that Bowser is here at this very moment. So is everyone ready to go give that Koopa King what for?" Alex pumps his fist into the air. "Yeah! We got this!" "I have no objections bro." Luigi replies. "I may not have fought him before, but I will do everything in my power to assist Mario!" Driad proclaims. "It will be like old times...Sort of." Mallow says, rubbing the back of his head out of nervousness for having to enter combat against a former ally. "It will be nice to defeat the one who defiled Star Haven..." Geno states, folding his arms and nodding his head once. "What a crazy group we got ourselves involved with...huh Lieutenant?" Alpha whispers to Gemini. The Koopa takes a good long look at the rest of the group as they do a pre-journey cheer. The Commander notices a small grin on the Koopa's face, and lets out an intrigued laugh. "They are pretty crazy Commander..." Gemini whispers to himself. "But let us be honest, would you have it any other way?" Letting out an even louder laugh, Alpha nods in agreement. "Hahahaha! You got me there Lieutenant...You got me there..." And thus, the group heads into the cave, to head towards their climatic battle with Bowser...

Meanwhile, in the deepest parts of the Ignitor Cave, Bowser and Kamek can be heard talking to each other. "Lord Bowser...Gobblegut is dead." The elderly Magikoopa states. "Hmph...So Mario and his party of miscreants have finally arrived then..." The Koopa King growls to himself, not a growl of annoyance though, but a growl of excitement. "Kamek...You may now proceed with Step 4 of my plan..." Without hesitation, the Magikoopa obeys his lord with a gracious bow of the head. "I shall follow your orders to the very end, sire..."

_Next Time: The Alternate Route._


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32: Visions of the Koopa King**

"How curious...For a cave based around the fire element, I never expected this place to feel as cool it is..." Having finished climbing down a nearby stone ladder, Gemini takes a look at his surroundings. In front of the group is a massive stone bridge suspended over a gigantic lake of lava. Occasionally a bubble will be formed in the boiling liquids and pop, sending lava spewing high up into the air. "...This place just doesn't make any sense to me." The Koopa then moves his arms away from his chest and begins walking across the bridge along with the rest of the group. As they walk, Geno decides to address Gemini's concerns over the heat. "I'm a bit curious about the heat as well. I don't see this being a problem for most of us right now due to these air barriers keeping us chilled, but as for you?" Tilting his head to look at the Koopa from over his shoulder, the doll lowers his eyelids to think. "The longer we stay in these lands, the more that I think that your ancestors may have had something to do with the creation of this place."

"Because of the fact that our species is the only one that can survive this environment?" Gemini replies while wondering just what Geno is trying to get at. "Not just that..." Before the doll can begin explaining his theory to the Koopa, the bridge begins to wildly tremble below their feet. The heroes begin to lose their balance due to the instability of the rocks that keep the bridge together, Alex looks at the lava to see just what might be going on, his eyes wide open out of fear. "An eruption?" Mallow exclaims in panic, his body forced to kneel on the ground just to avoid being flung off into the lava. Alpha is staring at the ground below, with one hand placed against the side of his head where his eyepatch is. "No life readings besides our own...The bridge isn't alive, so what could possibly-" Before the Commander can read into the current predicament more, the ground gives way beneath them, sending them spiraling down towards the lava below.

Sweatdrops emerging from his forehead due to this dire predicament, Gemini gets ready to activate his demon form once again. "Don't worry, I'll be able to fly us all back to safety!" Before he can transform though, Alpha quickly raises his right arm to stop him. "Lieutenant, there isn't enough time to get everyone!" "GREAT!" Alex exclaims in disgust, holding his arms out in front of his face and rolling his eyes around his head. "It's the Terra Cave all over again! Except this time I can't use the stone's power to save us!" "We're doomed then, right?" Driad says in a depressed tone. "Actually, in theory-" Mallow's scientific ramblings are quickly interrupted by Alpha, who has changed his left arm into a cannon again and has it held behind his back. "WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR THEORIES RIGHT NOW PRINCE!" Thrusting the cannon down at the rapidly approaching lava lake, a thick beam of ice emerges from the metallic cylinder and smashes down into the hot liquids below.

"HOW DOES ICE HELP US AGAINST-" Bewildered by Alpha's ridiculous action, the boy's mind was blown into a million pieces when he saw the lava freezing over instantaneously. Due to the Commander's beam, a thick sheet of ice covers up the lava that was directly beneath them. Alpha turns his cannon arm back to normal and flips his body around in the until his feet are pointing at the ice platform. The rest of the group quickly does the same, and though a couple of them slip upon making contact with the ice they are able to regain their balance easily. Rubbing the back of his head, Alex takes a look around. The ice isn't melting, and despite being as close as they are to the lava the temperature has not risen. "No amount of wind should be able to keep us cool when we are this close to the lava...So what is going on here?"

"Simple Alex..." Alpha slyly responds. To help make his point know, the Goomba walks to the edge of the icy platform and dips his hand into the lava. Quickly pulling it back out, it is seen to be unharmed. In fact, the only thing that looks different about it is the fact that it's now soaking wet. "Water?" Mario walks over to the edge of the platform and crouches down to closely examine the "lava" for himself. Dipping his glove into liquid while keeping his eyes on Alpha, Mario does not feel an excessive amount of pain like he has come to expect from past experiences with lava pits. The plumber then pulls his hand out of the lake with Alpha giving the plumber a quick shrug of the shoulders because he doubted his words. Standing back up and flicking his wrist to remove the water from his gloves, Mario starts tapping his foot on the ice while waiting for the Goomba to explain himself.

"A nice illusion, but it will take more than that to get rid of us." "So you going to stop being cryptic and explain everything already?" Driad says impatiently with his arms folded in front of his chest and a blank expression on his face. "Fine, fine. Don't tie your vines in a knot, Driad." Alpha lets out a little laugh in the face of everyone's impatience. He then takes his left hand and raises his index finger to point at the place where the bridge used to be. "While we crossed that bridge I could already feel the ground breaking apart beneath us. I figured it might have been due to our combined weight, but then I realized that the bridge had started shaking the moment I had walked onto it. Knowing that it was unstable and hearing my Lieutenant talk about the lack of heat in the air, I quickly took a look at the 'lava' below. The moment I decided to check the lake out was the moment that a bubble had burst below the surface. Due to it's sudden burst I was able to notice a small hole in the ground that quickly closed after the 'lava' was spewed into the air. With all the facts laid out in front of me, I put the pieces together and realized that what existed below us was 'lava' in name only."

Alex thought about what Alpha just said. It took a few seconds, but then it dawned on him. "So by the sounds of things, the Overlord designed this temple knowing that people who managed to enter it would take one quick look at the lava and the rickety bridge and leave to avoid dying..." "That's quite possible Alex." Geno states, having his own theory to add into this conversation. "But remember Cackletta's tale about the Crystal King? The Overlord didn't create the temples, he built off of pre-existing locations. For all we know, this fake lava could've already been here before he arrived and placed the Fire Stone deeper into the cave." "Well, those are both very interesting theories gentlemen, but without any written records of the Overlord's journey here we won't be able to know the truth..." Alpha states. The prospect of never knowing the truth caused both Alex and Geno to lower their heads and let out a long, depressed sounding sigh.

"Anyways..." A sweat drop forms on Mario's head as he points towards the shoreline off to the right. "There seems to be a tunnel over there, we should probably find a way to get over there." Alpha turns to Driad. "Can you create a thin board of wood Driad? We can use it to paddle this platform all the way over to the other side." The flower was confused. Considering how prepared Alpha seems to be for such a broad variety of situations, shouldn't he be able to create a paddle himself? "I suppose I could do that, but do you lack the ability to make one yourself?" As the living flower reaches into his mouth to pull out a board of wood, Alpha decides to answer his question, not even bothering to try and hide the truth from him. "To be honest, these arms may seem like the ultimate swiss army knife, but I can only use them twenty times every twenty-four hours. I am trying to conserve my arms' uses for the battle we are sure to face later on. Not only that, but I don't have an oar feature on this arm in the first place. I should probably add that in as an upgrade later on."

By the time Alpha has finished the Crayzee Dayzee has already pulled a thin wooden board from out of his mouth. He places it on the ice below and changes his arms into two leaf blades and begins slashing at the board to carve it into the shape of an oar. Being a delicate process and all, it takes him at least five minutes before he is finished carving. Quickly changing his hands back to their normal state, Driad takes a moment to brush the dew dripping from his forehead before he lifts the newly crafted oar off of the floor. "There, a perfectly carved out oar." Geno walks over to examine his friend's wooden creation, taking the time to slowly rubbing the smooth hard surface of the oar, making sure that it's not only durable but also thick enough to push the ice platform through the water. "Amazing...You're wood is very well-built." Geno's praise causes Driad's cheeks to become red out of embarrassment. Nervously rubbing the back of his head, a little chuckle emerges from the Crayzee Dayzee's lips. "Oh, it's not THAT good Geno..."

Taking the oar from out of his hand, Geno begins to walk towards the edge of the platform. "You know Driad, when this entire journey is said and done, maybe you should consider becoming a wood sculptor." Interested by the doll's idea, Driad thanks the wooden herald by nodding his head slightly. As he places the oar into the waters below, he responds to Driad's thanks by nodding his own head as well. Geno then begins to paddle through the waters, the icy platform inching slowly towards the nearby rocky shore. The platform moves along at a snail's pace due to its girth, but in the end it only takes a couple minutes for them to get to the edge of the shore and get off. With the cave leading to their next destination lying in wait, the heroes take a moment to catch their breaths after the rate of their beating hearts increased from the fall.

After they have finished they descend further into the cave, the wind barriers that kept them safe from harm outside of cave having now disappeared, yet the group barely feels any heat coming from the surrounding walls. "Well, at least we shouldn't have to worry about the walls bursting open and lava coming out to engulf us." Alex stares at the smooth ceiling above, not noticing the small holes poked into them due to them blending in with the black rocks that make up the surface. As they continue to advance through the tunnel, the air starts becoming dry, and the temperature is rising with each passing second.

The effects of the heat can be visibly seen on most of the group's bodies. Geno and Driad are not affected by this intensifying heat. Geno because of the fact that he doesn't have any nerves in his wooden body, and Driad because he surprisingly enjoys this kind of temperature. As for the rest of the group, Mario and Luigi are forced to take off their hats and use them as fans to keep themselves cool. At the time, Alex assumes that he doesn't have a way to keep himself cool, but soon remembers the palm tree leaf that he has been carrying around in the back of his shirt since he found it on the roof of the Lightning Palace. Reaching into the back of his shirt, Alex grips the end of the leaf stem and pulls it out. It's a little ruffled up due to damage from his earlier battles, but not in a way that makes it completely unusable to him. "Man, finding this thing again turned out to be a good thing after all..." He then waves the leaf in front of his face to cool himself off, blowing the sweatdrops that formed on his forehead off in the process.

Using air conditioners built into his shoulders, Alpha is able to keep both himself and Gemini cooled off. Mallow uses a small cast of HP Rain to keep himself hydrated as he moves along, the cloud following him in the process. This seems like a good enough tactic to keep the heat from affecting them too much, but after two more minutes of advancing through the tunnel, the air has become so dried and the temperature has risen to the point that Alpha's air conditioners short-circuit, while both of the Mario Bros. and Alex are unable to keep their strength up, and thus they put their makeshift fans back where they had them before. Mallow's rain cloud dries up from lack of moisture in the air. Even Driad and Geno are starting to get affected by the heat, with Geno's wood slowly cracking open and the Crayzee Dayzee's plant body slowly shriveling up. "It's like a microwave in here..." Alpha starts panting, the heat forcing his body to lurch forward as he walks. "Are we…almost at the end?" Alex asks, panting slowly after speaking each word.

"I...I see some glowing lights up ahead..." As Gemini finishes his sentence, the heat finally gets to him, and his tired body collapses onto the ground. Not wanting to waste neither time nor energy by reacting to this, Alex quietly lifts the Koopa's body off of the ground and carries him on his shoulders. "Just...keep yourself alive Gemini..." After this, the boy lets out a heavy yet dry sounding cough, and decides to no longer waste any air by opening his mouth to talk. All attempts to avoid wasting their energy and air turns out to be futile, as the heat is just too strong. Just before they arrive at the end of the tunnel, Alex collapses onto the floor as well. "Oh...no..." Mario says with a sorrowful tone, but he too collapses onto the ground right next to the boy. The next to fall is Luigi, followed by Mallow, then Driad, and finally Geno. Alpha's arms are being dragged along the ground, as he walks his head is turned to look at his fallen comrades. "..." Almost instantly, the Goomba turns around and goes to help them all out. "The things...I do...in the name of honor..."

Alpha approaches Driad's fallen body, and his drying, bloodshot eyes are barely kept open in the face of this heat. As he tries to lift his arm up to pick the living flower up off the ground, his eyelids shut all the way, and he collapses on top of Driad. With all the heroes down for the count, not a one of them is aware of Kamek approaching from the end of the tunnel. The Magikoopa enters the heat plagued passage, putting up a magic veil around himself to prevent himself from being affected by the temperature. "I swear, I really don't see how any mortal being could survive such an ordeal..." Kamek sees the fallen bodies the heroes. "Hmph...So they are still alive...Barely. Lord Bowser will be most upset if I disobey his plans by letting them die here, so I better remove them from this place at once before I use my magic on their minds..." The Magikoopa draws his wand from his robe, and with a flick of the rest a flash of light engulfs the heroic group to teleport both them and himself to the end of the tunnel...

Later on, Mario starts to regain consciousness. Slowly opening his eyes, he finds himself lying on top of a cold, marble tile floor. As he slowly raises his head, he notices a massive red staircase that ascends up a pitch black corridor. On the walls that lie on both sides of the stairs there exist multiple portraits of the Koopa King all lined up in a row that stare down at weakened plumber. This scenario is completely familiar to Mario, but before he can wonder how he arrived at this area he hears Peach screaming his name from the top of the staircase. "MARIO!" The distressed Princess' cries pierce his eardrums, and forces the portly plumber onto his own two feet. He then quickly dashes up the staircase to rescue Peach. As he keeps running up the flight of stairs, he never seems to get any closer. In fact, Peach's cries become quieter with each passing second, and Bowser's evil laugh begins to replace the Princess' sounds soon enough. Nervous drops of sweat form on Mario's head as the portraits of Bowser stare at him while he runs. There is a certain sense of futility in his's struggle to save the Princess this time around, yet he continues to run...Forever...

Luigi starts to wake up...He is trapped on the roof of an old haunted mansion, the skies above are an eerie shade of orange, and dark clouds slowly manifest everywhere before quickly vanishing into nothingness. Standing before him is Bowser, who is much bigger than he normally is. The Koopa King lets out a massive roar, and out of fear Luigi puts his hands behind his back and starts to crawl backwards to try and escape. The Koopa King holds out his right hand, and a spiky orb materializes in his palm. Using most of his strength, the Koopa King hurtles the object through the air at Luigi. Jumping out of the way, the spiked ball's impact with the floor causes it to break open instantly. Luigi reaches for his back, hoping that the vacuum he used in this situation before, the Poltergeist 3000, would be there to help him out, but it is nowhere to be seen. With no way to defend himself, Luigi's eyes widen out of fear as Bowser looms over him, flames charging in his mouth...

Gemini has already woken up. His body is scarred, and blood is dripping from both his eye sockets and his left leg. He is kneeling before Bowser, who calmly sits on his dragon-scaled stone throne with one hand rested on his knee. He looks at Gemini, bored out of his wits. "For the one called 'The Blood Thunder', I had expected more of a fight...If you are the best the Kingdom has to offer, then I will take over the whole world, you do realize that right?" Despite the blood coming from his body, Gemini makes sure that none of it ever drips onto the scarf wrapped around his arm. He realizes that he is being forced to relive a past experience that caused him an insufferable amount of pain, yet wonders why this event was the one that was chosen. "You aren't real...You can't do anything to hurt me inside my own mind..." Raising an eyebrow out of curiosity for Gemini's foolish choice of words, the Koopa King lets out a quiet yet joyous laugh. "Hahaha...I'm not real, am I now?" Bowser gets off of his throne and walks over to Gemini, his fist held behind his back. "Reality hurts kid..." Gemini closes his eyes, with the knowledge that he will live through this pain implanted deep into his mind...

Alex is seen walking through a crowd filled with hundreds of fighting game fanatics, a pair of sunglasses set on his face. As he walks closer to a pair of giant plasma screen TVs, he lowers his sunglasses to glare at a couple of screaming fangirls of his. The two girls faint instantly at the sight of his gorgeous eyes, so the boy covers them up quickly with his sunglasses again. As he reaches the end of the crowd, he finds his opponent waiting for him. The world's strongest Brawl player, M2K, is holding a silver Wavebird Gamecube controller in his hands. The plasma screen turns on, revealing the massive character select screen for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. M2K has already chosen his character, the God Tier Meta-Knight. Alex has made it through rounds and rounds of powerful and clever opponents. All he has to do now is select the one character that will help him win this fight, the man of action and all-around badass, Solid Snake. Picking up the second Wavebird controller that lies on a silver platter, Alex moves the control stick so the pointer finger lands on Snake. But something is not right...His hands start moving against their will! The pointer finger slowly begins to creep over to the one character that stands no chance against Meta-Knight...BOWSER! The crowd's cheers begin to die down, and out of nervousness Alex's sunglasses fall off his face. As if he were mocking him, Bowser's portrait comes to life and laughs at the boy. As the pointer lands on the portrait, the announcer's voice loudly states the name of the character... "BOWSER!" Fate has chosen Alex's path, with his life ruined by this strange turn of events, the boy angrily raises his fists towards to the sky and yells out... "-"

Back in the real world, it is revealed that Kamek has currently cast a spell on the entire group, which is probably the reason that they are forced to endure these nightmares. The room is lightly lit by a circle of torches on the wall, with a glass plate on the ground revealing a stream of magma flowing beneath it. Whether this magma is real or fake like the stuff seen earlier, nobody knows. The Magikoopa delicately puts his wand away into his cloak, and turns around so he can report the good news to his king. "Lord Bowser shall be most pleased when he comes in here...The spell should keep them occupied for one hour, and of course without any of them awake to defeat me there is no way for the spell to be broken prematurely..." Confident in his victory, Kamek doesn't notice Alpha slowly rising up from the ground. "Is that so?" Alpha seems happy for some reason, as the Magikoopa nervously cricks his head around to make sure that he wasn't hearing things. The look on his face when he notices the Commander up on his feet shows the absolute shock at this stunning revelation. "Impossible! You should still be under my spell!"

"What spell?" Alpha decides to act dumb in an attempt to take advantage of Kamek's panicking behavior and get some information out about what the spell has done to the rest of the group. "My spell is supposed to keep you from moving by awakening latent fears of my lord inside of your mind! The only way to break it-" Alpha interrupts Kamek and finishes the rest of his sentence while mimicking his tone of voice "-is to wait exactly one hour or defeat me!" Letting out a little laugh, the Goomba holds his right arm out in front of him and transforms it into a cannon. "This should be easy enough..." Reverting back to a serious tone, Alpha has Kamek locked in his sights. "How? Just...HOW?" Magikoopa begs to know how the Goomba could have possibly avoided the effects of his spell.

"The answer is simple." Alpha says. "I don't fear Bowser. There is nothing hidden inside for you to use...For you see, I have no reason to fear the weakling son of the tyrant I killed with my own hands." Kamek stumbles back a couple of steps, taken aback by what Alpha just said. "You...You are the one responsible for killing Lord Bowser Sr.?" "Yes. You think your current lord can possibly compare to the might of the monster that was his father? Pathetic...Your spell isn't even as effective as you think it is. Geno, Mallow, Driad...None of them fear Bowser either. So you can either run off now, or face all four of us at once. It is up to you" Kamek nervously moves his left arm into his sleeve to pull out his wand, an action that does not evade Alpha's sight. "How can that possibly be? They are unconscious right now! If they aren't effected like you claim to not be, then why haven't they awakened yet?" "That heated tunnel we just went through hit them harder than the rest of us. Sure they are taking a longer time to recover compared to the rest of us, but I predict that they will be awake again in two minutes. I only need one of those to break your spell..."

Kamek quickly pulls his wand out from his robe and gets ready to cast a spell at Alpha. "COCKY LITTLE GOOMBA!" But Alpha is just too quick for him, firing an ion blast from the inside of his cannon that delivers a direct hit onto Kamek's arm, causing his wand to be dislodged from his grip. The wand falls onto the ground, and the jewel on top cracks upon impact. Gripping his injured arm, the Magikoopa notices his broken wand, and his jaw drops towards the ground. "Oh...OH MY!" As Alpha reverts his cannon arm back to it's normal form, he looks over his shoulder to watch as the four heroes' who were imprisoned by Kamek's nightmare spell are slowly starting to come to. Each of them rises up off the ground, opening their eyelids to make sure that they have finally returned to reality. The instant they see Kamek, they are quick to realize just why they had those Bowser related nightmares.

"I see, so it's Bowser's head Magikoopa who did this to us..." Mario smashes his right fist into the palm of his left hand, preparing to fight the weakened Kamek alongside Luigi, Gemini, and Alex, who are all also posed for battle. Massive amounts of sweat begin to drip from Kamek's forehead. "Hey now...come on guys, you think it's fair to beat up on an old man?" His shrill attempts at weaseling out of this fight do nothing to persuade the heroes' from their goals. "Well Kamek, your wand is broken and you are up against four incredibly peeved heroes and the Commander of the M.S.I...Would you like to take your licks, or will you run crawling back to your Master like a little dog?" Alpha's words dig deep into Kamek's mind. However, the Magikoopa still has one last trick up his sleeve to avoid the inevitable curb stomp battle. "You think my wand is broken?" Kamek quickly kneels over, picks up his wand, and points it at the group. The group quickly holds their arms up in front of their faces to guard against any possible spells, but when nothing happens, they remove their arms to see that Kamek has escaped.

"Darn it! We were tricked." Alex says, dismayed by the fact that he was fooled by such an obvious ruse. Alpha is quick to argue against Alex's concerns. "No, you were right in raising your guard. For all we know, Kamek's wand still might have been working." The Commander begins to walk towards the remaining three heroes that are still recovering from the tunnel's trap. "Besides, we are almost at the end of this temple now...We'll get a second chance to fight him soon enough." As the Goomba finished speaking, the three heroes began to awaken. When they get up on their feet, Alpha is there to explain what went down after they had fainted earlier. With all the facts confirmed by Alex, Gemini and the Mario Bros., Geno has but one comment to make. "Alright, who is ready to kick some Koopa butt?" Everyone else nods their head in agreement. And thus, they exit the room, proceeding to the final area where Bowser awaits...

_Next Time: Inferno Showdown_


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33: Inferno Reunion I, The Power Hungry King**

The group stays silent as they travel through the rest of the caves. Remaining ever cautious to any possible traps on the walls of the cave, they feel that so far everything that Bowser has thrown at them has been far too easy to deal with. Even the cave's traps themselves have been nothing more than minor nuisances. It's like the Koopa King has taken every measure possible to make sure that they arrive at his location unharmed. "...He wants the stones." Alex breaks the silence. Not even turning around to look the boy straight in the eyes, Mario slowly nods his head in agreement. "And he will use Peach as a bargaining chip to meet his ends..." Alex's straight smile changes to that of a frown. This expression is a stark contrast to his usual cheerful self, and once again the group goes silent. A few more minutes pass, and this time Alpha's voice breaks the depressing atmosphere. "If it was a simple matter of just getting the stones, then all he needed to do was have his magician lackey put us to sleep and steal the stones that way...No, Bowser wants something more from us, the question though is just what that something is."

"Anything else he would want he already got before coming here." Geno responds, his wooden eyelids shut while his mind is deep in thought. "...The Princess." Gemini's realization causes Geno to tilt his head down towards the ground. "Exactly." The word that Geno spoke...Nay, the way he so calmly spoke that one word caused Mario to clench his right fist in anger. "To gain absolute power and establish a dominant rule over the entire planet requires Bowser to not only force the Princess to obey his will, but to also make sure that not a single person can oppose him." Alpha slowly lifts one hand up and points to the angered plumber. "In other words, for him to accomplish this, Bowser has to remove the one person who has been the bane of his existence for the last few years."

"Mario..." Alex says. With a silent nod, Alpha continues to talk. "Simply put, Mario is the impenetrable wall that keeps Bowser out of power. Remember the few days that Mario had been unconscious due to his defeat at the hands of the Star Rod empowered Bowser? Chaos engulfed the land in those few days, and it took Mario weeks of traveling the lands to clean everything up again. Now, with the information I just told you, imagine a world where Mario is dead..." By letting these thoughts sink into their heads for a moment, most of the group is able to perfectly imagine the horrors that would befall a Bowser dominated planet. Alpha is not done lecturing the group though... "Without an honorable shield for protection, Peach would eventually surrender for the sake of her people...Without a ray of hope to guide them, the people would never attempt to resist Bowser's might...In fact, you could pretty much say that-" Alpha is socked right in the jaw by none other than Mario, who has grown increasingly pissed off at the Goomba for adding more weight onto his already guilt filled heart. The impact of the plumber's fist twists Alpha's body around and causes him to smash down onto the floor. The punch bruises the plumber's knuckles, and everyone else can see the anger that burns within his eyes.

"That's ENOUGH, Alpha." The plumber's deep and stern tone of voice surprises everyone, the Commander of the M.S.I. more shocked than the rest of them. Using one hand to wipe the blood that's dripping from the side of his mouth away and the other to lift himself up off the ground, Alpha turns his body around and looks at the plumber with an absolutely pleased smile on his face. "Well, I see that my words are no longer required now..." Mario points his index finger at Alpha. "They were never required in the first place." Without saying anymore, the plumber turns around and continues to walk down the tunnel. Letting out a quiet yet joyous chuckle, the Commander gets back on his own two feet and swings his arms around himself to re-adjust a few bolts that had been loosened by Mario's attack. "Hahaha...Come on guys, let's make sure that we are there to back him up if he gets in trouble." The rest of the group, despite not understanding what had just gone down, decide to follow the Goomba and the plumber as they advance through the final stretch of the tunnel.

When they have almost approached the very end of this cave, the bright lights radiating from the lit torches in the next room start to break apart the thick amounts of darkness that obscured the group's vision while they traversed the tunnel. Their eyes adjust to this incoming light, and soon enough they enter the room itself. What they see is quite overwhelming to them. The room is absolute massive in size. Looking up one would notice that there is not a ceiling in sight, and the walls are made up of hundreds of jagged black and grey rocks. Below the smooth charcoal floor one could hear the sounds of lava gushing through the caves, with the occasional lava bubble bursting open every now and then for a change of pace. Their target, Bowser, sits before them on a throne made of fire, his arms rested on his left kneecap and his knuckles pressed against his rounded chin. He stares at the group with a pleased look on his face, for he has been awaiting this moment for a long time and now it is finally about to happen.

As the Koopa King gets off of his throne his feet's impact with the charcoal causes a shockwave made of air to be sent flying across the room. This powerful shockwave forces most of the group to stand their ground to avoid begin tossed away, save for Mario, who stands undaunted by the Koopa King's display of power and merely wraps his left hand around his right fist, cracking his knuckles as he continues to advance to the center of the room. Once there, Mario waits for Bowser to make his next move, but finds the Koopa King staying right where he's at. "You afraid of me or something Bowser?" As Mario calls out the Koopa King for his supposed cowardice, Bowser can only help but quietly laugh at the plumber's comment. "I don't have any reason to move from this spot Mario."

"Oh?" Mario raises an eyebrow in confusion, curious about the Koopa King's decision. "By the way, how did all of you enjoy your journey through my land?" A confident smile appears on Bowser's face. After recovering from Bowser's shockwave, Alex rubs the back of his head, surprised by the fact that their enemy is acting friendly at this time. "Well, to be honest, it was pretty sim-" At that moment, Alex realizes that Bowser was talking as if the Nova Cesspool belonged to him. "Wait, you sure you didn't mean 'This' land?" "Nope." Bowser responds in an instant, all the while keeping that grin on his face. Rarely does Alpha ever feel confused about something like he is now. "Ok, explain yourself Bowser."

"With pleasure, esteemed Commander of the M.S.I." Bowser speaks with a mocking tone, before beginning to explain the story of the Nova Cesspool. "You ever thought it was strange how only Koopas could traverse these lands? Isn't it weird that I chose to go to this one temple when at the time I had four to choose from? You see, proud heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, the Nova Cesspool was a creation of my ancestor from two thousand some years ago. The story of this land had been passed down through generations of Koopa Kings, every child had this story read to them so one day they may choose to come here themselves and claim the Fire Stone hidden deep inside."

"That doesn't make any sense..." Geno replies, his mind instantly coming up with plenty of holes in Bowser's tale thus far. "Alright, since you are all still confused, let me tell you everything you need to know." And thus Bowser continues his tale. "You see, the royal breed of Koopa is capable of performing magic, essentially making them a combination of both a normal Koopa and a Magikoopa. Long ago, the earliest ancestor by the name of Sigris had been traveling the lands looking for ways to expand his territory beyond the borders of Dark Land. Accidentally stumbling across the Ignitor Cave, Sigris awakened the outside guardian that laid in wait for any who dared to try and steal the Element Overlord's Fire Stone. Dispatching of this guardian easily, he became intrigued by this cave, and decided to journey inside to figure out the secrets that existed within. His magic helped him overcome every single trap that the place tossed at him, until finally he came across the room that we are standing in right now. It is said that he fought a mighty yet fierce some dragon, emerging from the cave a day later as the winner."

"However, the battle had caused great damage to his lungs and flesh, leaving him with only two days to live. Due to acquiring what should be the last stone in the chain, Sigris was granted knowledge on the locations of the remaining six temples. Leaving behind all the knowledge he knew in the form of a gigantic book, his last act before death was to cast the most powerful spell he could think of in the lands that surrounded the cave...Creating what people now call the Nova Cesspool. He then cast his own body into a nearby lava bed, melting himself down to nothingness so no one would be able to learn the secrets he carried...Save for his own descendants." As Bowser finishes, Alpha is able to put all the pieces together himself. "So...It's because of that very book that you were able to begin your hunt for the element stones..."

"Oh, it gets better." Bowser let's out his signature laugh. "You see, everything has gone perfectly for me so far. I went to the Lightning Palace because I knew Mario and his group would head there eventually. Leaving them with the knowledge that I was after the stones, I then went back to Toad Town and kidnapped Peach while Mario wasn't around to save her. Knowing that Alpha there would probably be watching me, I had Kamek take us to the one place on the planet where he wouldn't be able to find us...In the thick fog of the Nova Cesspool, where there would be no way for us to be detected. Figuring ahead of time that Mario would acquire a stone a day, I had Kamek freeze us in suspended animation for 48 hours, so we would be ready for the day where Mario and his friends would come. Once the spell ended, I protected the Princess with an air bubble so she wouldn't be suffocated by the poison in the air. Then while Gobbleguts kept guard outside the cave, we spent our time inside dealing with the traps so none of them would kill you before you got here. Changing the lava into water, removing the flamethrowers from the tunnels...All of it was our doing."

"BOWSER!" Mario exclaims, the anger inside of him reaching it's peak, he is just about ready to charge in and beat the Koopa King to a bloody pulp. "I'm not done yet either!" Bowser reaches into his shell and pulls out a pitch black stone with red, orange, and yellow marks spread around it. "You see this, heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom?" "The Fire Stone? But that would mean you beat the guardian all by yourself!" Driad becomes increasingly worried by these turn of events, as the air becomes thicker around him with each passing second. "Beat? HAHHAHAHAHAH!" Bowser's evil laugh echoes throughout the cave, shaking the stationary rocks around the room violently. "Here comes the best part, so pay attention now. You see, to ensure that none of his kin would suffer the same fate he did, he found a way to make it so the Fire Stone would not activate when touched by those who descended from himself."

"Impossible..." Gemini says. "Then what would be the point of having an inactive stone in your possession?" "You fools don't get it, do you?" Bowser points his left claw at the group, mocking them for their ineptitude. "The only thing that spell did was ensure that we of the royal Koopa lineage would never have to FIGHT the guardian, thus allowing us to use the power of the stone ourselves without waiting for it to recharge!" Thinking back to their battles with the robot in the Terra Cave and the reborn Crystal King, Alex remembers what happened when they absorbed the powers of the Earth Stone and the Ice Stone respectively. Horrified, his eyes grow wide out of fear of what's to come. "You plan to eat the stone yourself to gain it's power!" The boy's comment causes the rest of the group to turn around and look at him out of shock. Bowser continues laughing, pleased with the fact that one person managed to figure everything out. "BINGO! I'm amazed that ONE of you was able to figure things out...But it's too late now!" With that, the Koopa King tosses the Fire Stone up into the air. Due to the rest of the group being distracted by Alex's realization, none of them are able to stop the stone from dropping straight into Bowser's opened mouth. Biting his teeth down hard, the Koopa King continues to grin madly.

Flames begin to seep out through the gaps in Bowser's fangs, before he opens his mouth up wide to let out a massive roar. This powerful roar creates an even more powerful air shockwave that causes everyone but Mario to be knocked off their feet and sent flying back into the tunnel. The plumber is barely standing his ground, holding his arms up as a massive pillar of flames erupts from underneath Bowser's feet and engulfs him. It continues to rise up into the air until it burns through the rocks at the very top of the ceiling. When the flames start to die down, Mario is able to slowly see the changes that Bowser has underwent by eating the Fire Stone. The green on his shell and face have changed to a light-gray color, his yellow skin has become as brown as burnt wood. His stomach has been decorated with a flaming pattern, the combination of red, yellow and orange glows and waves back and forth like a real representation of flames themselves. His red hair has become darker in color, and his eyes are now yellow in color. His horns have turned around to face the direction of his back, and his claws have grown longer in length on top of changing to a pitch black color. The spikes on his gauntlets have been replaced with miniature blue flames. As the Koopa King lowers his head to look at Mario, the plumber begins to break out in sweat.

"Mario...I've waited for this day for too long. The day where with my own hands I will finally end your life, and stand on top of the world as the grand ruler of everything! I thank my ancestors for giving me the power necessary to accomplish my goals!" Bowser raises his hands up into the air, and from the ground emerges a ring made of fire. The flames that create this rin rises up, enclosing itself as a dome above both Bowser and Mario until there is absolutely no way of escape. The area inside the dome becomes dark, for the light of the outside world has been blocked completely by these powerful flames. The Koopa King lowers his hands down to the side of his shell, and Mario holds his fists out in front of his body to prepare himself for battle. "Mario, let me tell you one more thing. Our own little secret." Bowser's voice echoes off the flaming walls, his tone sounding darker than before. "The only reason I had Kamek use those magic spells on you and your allies, was to get YOU angry enough at me so you will fight me using your full might! When I kill you, I want to be able to gloat over the fact that I defeated the strongest being on this planet!" Mario lowers his eyebrows in anger, gritting his teeth as he bears the full brunt of the heat in this dome.

Bowser draws in the heat from the air into his open left hand, flames wrapping around in the shape of a sphere, in essence becoming a small fireball. The Koopa King draws his hand behind his face and with a flick of the wrist the fireball is sent flying towards Mario. The plumber jumps out of the way to avoid it, but to his surprise the fireball grows in size and blazes right across Mario's back, causing the upper part of his overalls to ignite. "MAMA MIA!" Mario panics as he lands on the ground and begins to tumble back and forth to put out the fire on his back. All the while Bowser starts to create another fireball in the palm of his right hand. Once Mario has put the fire out all that remains as a reminder that he was hit are a few burn marks. The portly plumber has no time to worry about this minor clothing damage though, as he sees another one of Bowser's fireballs coming right towards him. This time around though he knows what to expect, and quickly reaches into his right pocket. He swiftly pulls out a yellow cape and flicks it out in front of him, smacking the expanding fireball back to it's creator like it was nothing more then a simple baseball. Before the fireball makes contact with the Koopa King, he opens his mouth up wide and swallows it whole.

While Mario puts his cape away, he fails to notice that Bowser absorbed the fireball. He gets back up on his own feet and is about ready to rush at the Koopa King when he notices him opening his mouth with a flaming orb appearing at the very center. It continues to grow in size with every passing second until it touches the top of Bowser's mouth. At that point Bowser sends air out from inside of his throat to cause a giant flamethrower to be fired from his mouth. The sheer size of the flames emerging from Bowser's mouth are too big for Mario to jump out of the way of, so he simply holds his arms up in front of his face to defend himself against this attack. The flames quickly pass through Mario, continuously burning him for ten seconds before Bowser decides to let up his onslaught. By simply shutting his mouth, the flames die down. Though remnants of the attack can still be seen on the ground, with a few fires crackling along the parts of the ground that the flamethrower burned through.

Mario got off lucky. For the most part the only damage he suffered was a few burn marks on his sleeves and on the front of his overalls. Were Bowser's flames any hotter though and Mario's skin would've been burnt. "Is that the best you can do?" Mario says mockingly to the Koopa King. "All you are doing is performing the same moves you usually do with some minor differences. Surely you have-" Before the plumber can finish, he finds Bowser's fist has been jammed into his gut. Recoiling in pain, Mario's arms are held out away from his body and he spits some saliva from his mouth down onto the ground. He is able to notice a pair of flame trails leading from where Bowser once stood to the heels of his scaly feet, signifying that this version of Bowser is much faster than the previous one. While Mario is busy trying to recover from the pain, Bowser takes this opportunity to use his fist to lift Mario up into the air while pulling his other fist behind his face, all the while keeping that same confident grin on his face.

Before smashing Mario in his shocked face, the Koopa King decides to use the flames on his spiked wristband to ignite his fist with a bundle of blue fire. Without saying a single word to gloat over how pitiful Mario currently looks, Bowser swings his flaming fist right at Mario's face, at the same time letting him out of the grip of his other claw. Without anything keeping him from moving, Bowser's punch sends his rival flying through the air as it makes contact with his right cheek. Due to his body spinning around in mid-air, once Mario makes contact with the ground he ends up digging up the charcoal around him with great speed. His body stops moving just before he breaks through the ground completely though, thus ensuring that he does not meet an untimely death at the hands of the lava below. Weakly pushing himself off of the ground with both of his arms, it is shown that his right cheek is now covered in soot that somehow became stuck to his body as he flew through the charcoal. The same soot also seems to be stuck on various parts of his clothing too. Once he gets back up, he finds Bowser holding both of his fists out in front of him, with the blue flames gliding from the gauntlets on his body to the very tips of his knuckles.

Not willing to take his chances with guarding this attack, Mario decides it's finally time to use the one thing that can stop Bowser's flames. Reaching into his left pocket, Mario pulls out the small yellow cube that E. Gadd had given to him yesterday, and places it behind his back before pressing down on the red button that lies on top. In an instant, a small brown leather belt pops out from both sides of the cube and wraps itself tightly around Mario's thick waist, fastening itself together by using a golden latch and needle. A rounded water bowl appears from out of hyperspace, the bottom of it covered up by a round yellow object. From the top of said object appears a metal pole that splits at the center to reveal two brown handles that extends out to Mario's sides. After the metal rod passes through a double-layered blue plastic cover, a round yellow orb with a bolt that keeps it suspended in the air appears at the tip. The last step in the completion of the F.L.U.D.D. is for a rounded metal nozzle to appear at the very center of the orb. Upon activation, the nozzle speaks in a electronic voice as the bowl fills up with water. "Activation complete. Thank you for purchasing the F.L.U.D.D. 2000 Model."

With a quick scan of the area, F.L.U.D.D. recognizes the one wielding him instantly. Bobbing his head down to look at his friend, he calmly speaks to him, unaware of the Koopa King's presence. "Mario? It has been some time, how have you been?" Mario is not in the mood to reconcile with his former friend at this time, due to the imminent threat of Bowser's flames burning right in front of his eyes. "We'll talk later, Bowser is before us, can't you see?" Bowser can't hold back his laughter any longer, and lifts his head back to release it from deep inside of his lungs. "HAHAHAHA! You plan to use that puny thing to beat me? I know I'm using fire and all, but the water that thing squirts out is way too puny to stop my flames!" With the flames almost done charging in Bowser's fists, Mario begins to squeeze down on F.L.U.D.D.'s handles. To his surprise though, not a single drop of water emerges from the nozzle.

"Umm..." Nervously looking back and forth at both the nozzle and Bowser, the plumber continues to desperately squeeze the rounded handles in an attempt to get his nozzle to spray water at his archenemy. "DIE MARIO!" Bowser exclaims, opening his fists up so the flames gather in the palm of his hands. Thrusting both hands out in front of his body, a giant beam of blue flames appears from out of nowhere and flies at Mario, tearing and burning up the ground below itself as it approaches him. Running out of time, the plumber uses all of his strength to grasp his hands around the handles, praying that the waterpump will work for him at the very last second. Just before the flames make contact with his body, the water pump finally sprays water from it's mouth. But to Mario's surprise it's not a small trail of water like before, instead the F.L.U.D.D. unit fires a massive burst of water from it's rounded nozzle that completely engulfs Bowser's blue flames and turning them to smoke. As the water continues to fly through the air, Mario has to push his feet down against the ground to avoid being flung back by the recoil of the water. As Bowser's flames completely vanish away, the Koopa King looks on with a wide-eyed expression of total surprise on his face as the water floods over his entire body.

Upon seeing this Mario lets go of the handles, the instant he does this the water stops spraying out from the nozzle. He glances over his shoulder to find that the bowl used to contain the liquid is now completely empty, a small price to pay to keep himself alive. However, to his amazement the bowl begins to fill up again, the cube connected to his waist sending water into it nice and slowly. "Hmm..." Mario thinks to himself about how this could be possible, but before he figures out the answer he catches a glimpse of the Koopa King still standing before him with arms outstretched as he remains completely dumfounded by what just happened. "That...little..." Bowser is unable to keep himself together, his body overcome with an immense feeling of rage deep down. His body is projecting steam all around, due to his skin heating up and drying up the water that's stuck on his body. "PLUMBER!"

What happens next is quite a sight to behold. As if the flames themselves that make up the dome were alive, they respond to Bowser's rage by flying down from above and letting themselves be absorbed into the Koopa King's body. With less flames in the dome, the area the two are fighting in becomes a little more compact, with the air suddenly becoming thicker and everything becoming much hotter as well. Mario's face begins to start sweating profusely as the blue flames reappear on Bowser's gauntlets. "Shall we go for round two? If you are feeling hot, you can always use your water pump to cool yourself off! HAHAHAHA!" Mario looks at F.L.U.D.D.'s nozzle, and after hearing Bowser's mockery of him, comes up with a plan.

"If you are ready..." Mario calls out to the Koopa King. Bowser gets ready to rush at his rival with his newfound speed while the plumber has his hands wrapped around the F.L.U.D.D.'s handles. "RAAAAH!" Bowser roars loudly at the beginning of his charge. Mario aims the nozzle of F.L.U.D.D. so the water will fly above Bowser. The Koopa King does not notice this though, so when he sees Mario squeezing down on the handles, his immediate reaction is to stop moving to brace himself for the water blast. The blast never comes though, as Mario sends a small burst of water flying over the Koopa King's body. After this, he slyly moves his right hand behind his back to press down on the red button, causing F.L.U.D.D. to be stored in the hyperspace cube. While the Koopa King is distracted Mario runs forward and slides underneath him, his body moving along the ground quickly due to a couple of puddles of water remaining on the ground still. While being propelled between the trails of flames left by Bowser's run, the Koopa King turns around and sees Mario sliding away from him. Angered by the fact that the plumber deceived him, Bowser opens his mouth and starts preparing another flamethrower. After reaching the very end of the flame trail, Mario spins his body around using just his left arm and notices the Koopa King preparing his attack.

Mario is quick to get back up on his own two feet and press the red button on the cube again. As F.L.U.D.D. starts to reconstruct itself, the water Mario previously sprayed begins to fall down from the sky to refresh his boiling body. When Bowser unleashes his flamethrower, the water not only splashes down onto Mario, but F.L.U.D.D. has fully reappeared again, with the plumber's hands in position to squeeze the handles. Pressing against the rubber material, another burst of water shoots forth from the metallic nozzle to intercept Bowser's flames. Once again easily overcoming them, the flames on Bowser's body are soon put out by the powerful liquid. Not willing to let the Koopa King rejuvenate his flames, Mario shuts F.L.U.D.D. down again and rushes at Bowser, fist held tightly behind his back. Unable to react in time, a powerful punch is delivered into the Koopa King's gut by the portly plumber, forcing him to stagger backwards in pain while tightly clutching his chest. Then, Mario jumps up into the air and with a quick rise of his right knee, smashes Bowser in the jaw. The force of Mario's second attack causes Bowser to start tumbling backwards. The fall afterwards is quick, as the Koopa King's body lands on the ground with a loud thud at the same time that Mario lands perfectly on the ground feet first. Bent on one knee, Mario is triumphantly holding onto the edge of his cap. Assuming his enemy to be defeated, Mario starts to walk past his defeated body so he can go to the edge of the dome. Just before he reaches the edge though, he notices that the dome has suddenly become much smaller in size. Turning his head around he ends up seeing more flames entering the Koopa King's body. With his energy restored, Bowser slowly wiggles back and forth to try and get up off the ground. Eventually succeeding in this task, the Koopa King turns himself around.

His eyes have changed. Now they are a bright red color, and it can clearly be seen that his patience has run thin. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH MARIO!" He roars out at the plumber. Mario holds one hand up at Bowser's face, nodding his head in disbelief. "You've lost Bowser. Stop making a mockery of your name while you still can..." Bowser's frenzied eyes become bloodshot, and he starts panting like a mad dog. The power has gone to his head, and with it he's lost every last bit of sanity he possibly had remaining. "You fat, overconfident little flea! I still have the stone within me, and as long as this dome exists around you there is no way that you will ever escape my sight!" Lowering his hand, Mario closes his eyes and continues to shake his head. "You can't win Bowser. It's the same song and dance every time. You've kidnapped Peach in an attempt to lure me out and beat me so many times that's it gotten stale. There is really no point to us fighting anymore, you can never, ever hope to win."

"What..." Bowser states in a flat tone. Mario raises an eyebrow, opening one eyelid to look at the mess Bowser has become. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU DESERVE THE PRINCESS' LOVE? I...I HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING TO HARM HER! AND YET YOU, YOU AND YOUR MISERABLE GREEN BROTHER JUST SHOW UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND SHE FALLS FOR YOU INSTANTLY! I've...I've had IT!" Bowser moves his left foot forward, a flaming aura beginning to surround him. "I'll kill you Mario...AND THEN WHEN I AM DONE THE PRINCESS WILL BE KILLED BY MY HAND AS WELL!" Both of Mario's eyes are forced open, his expression changing from that of annoyance to shock and fear. He knew that Bowser wasn't lying at this point. He had been devoured by the rage buried deep within his soul, and if Mario didn't stop him here and now then he really WOULD be able to carry out his plans, without a single person left alive that could possibly oppose him.

Bowser begins to charge towards Mario. "This is it..." He thought to himself. He couldn't risk taking the time to call forth F.L.U.D.D. again, for Bowser would willingly charge through the water and impale him with his claws. Not willing to accept the end though, the plumber cups his hands out in front of body, and begins to gather flames in the very center of them. _"You'll never give up on me, or the Kingdom, right Mario?" _Peach's words echo through his mind as he thinks back to the day of the Star Festival. As he stands next to her, Mario calmly responds to the Princess, while in the real world the flames charging in Mario's hands begin to form the shape of an orb and expand in size. _"The day I give up on this planet...The day I give up on you, is a day that will never exist." _Folding his cupped hands behind his back, the orb continues to grow until it reaches the very tip of his palms. _"Thank you Mario..." _Peach's words continue to echo in his mind, as Mario remembers the Princess giving him a quick kiss on the cheek after saying what he did. With the flames fully charged, the plumber takes his cupped hands and thrusts them out in front of his body, opening them up to release a medium-sized beam of fiery energy from within. "FLAME CANNON!" Mario exclaims with all of his might. The beam flies through the air towards Bowser, but the Koopa King is undeterred by this approaching attack. "FIRE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME, YOU THINK THAT THIS WILL-" Bowser goes quiet though, as the beam of fire slams right into the spot on his gut where Mario had punched him earlier. The fire from the beam is different from the flaming aura, this fire is solidified, and this is the type of fire that Bowser cannot absorb it into himself. As the helpless Koopa King is carried through the air by the beam, Mario remembers the final words that Peach said after the kiss. _"I know, you'll always be there for me..." _The Koopa King roars loudly, his body overcome with pain. He turns his head around and finds himself about to crash through the flames of the dome. He then gets a strange looking grin on his face, and after his body flies through the dome it begins to slowly fade away.

Once the dome vanishes completely, the rest of the group notices Mario standing by himself, his body worn out from firing off that last attack. "Hey! It looks like my brother won!" Luigi exclaims in joy. As they rush forward to congratulate the triumphant hero, he suddenly falls flat on the ground. The combination of that attack plus the intense heat in that dome has drained Mario of his energy more than he originally thought. Before the group can question what just happened, a massive scaly foot slams down on top of Mario's back, forcing the plumber to let out a blood-curling scream. Bowser is still alive...Worse yet is the fact that he looks completely rejuvenated! Flying behind Bowser is his Clown Copter. To the left of it flies Kamek on his broom. Peach can be seen bound and gagged, with the Magikoopa having his now repaired wand aimed right at her head. The Koopa King lets out a nice long evil laugh, before proceeding to apply more pressure onto Mario's back. "I thank you, Mario. Your last attack would've been the end of me, had you not sent me flying into the dome. But because you did that, I was merely able to absorb the flames that made up the dome...Well, you should know what that means, so I will not say anymore."

Bowser then turns to look at the group. "Alright, now for the rest of you." "You think we can't take you ourselves Bowser?" Alex says, standing bravely in the face of this powerful version of the Koopa King. "No, you are right. I know you could defeat me easily if you all worked together. That's why I'm offering a deal." Alpha raises one eye in suspicion. "A deal? Silly words coming from a Koopa who is clearly outnumbered." Alpha begins to take one step forward, when Bowser applies more pressure onto Mario's back. The sound of bones cracking can be heard, and the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom lets out an even more painful sounding scream than he did before. "I would think things over carefully." Bowser says in calm, delighted tone. " I got two hostages with me here now, so you can either save Peach and let Mario die, or save Mario and let Peach be atomized." Kamek nervously holds his wand up at Peach's face, surprised by his lord's sudden, violent change in behavior.

"..." Alpha thinks things over. Bowser continues to press down on Mario's back, folding his arms in front of his chest while he waits for the group to decide on the offer. "...Alex, hand them over to him." The Commander says, albeit unwillingly. Reaching into his pant pockets, Alex pulls the six stones they've collected so far and holds them up in the air. "Are you sure about this?" He looks for a sign that Alpha might have a plan to save both the Princess and Mario, but all the Commander does is nod his head to reply to Alex's question. The boy does not like this, not one little bit, but decides to just suck it up and toss the stones over to Bowser, since it would be unwise for him to try and act heroically at this moment. With his arms outstretched, the Koopa King catches each and every one of the stones in the palm of his greedy hands. "Thank you..." Bowser says, mocking the heroes for the one trait of theirs that's so easy to exploit. He takes his foot off of Mario's back and kicks him back over to the heroes. He lands with a thud on the other side them.

"Now, Kamek, give them back their precious-GACK!" Bowser's eyes become purely white, as he stands motionless on the ground. "My lord?" Kamek begins sweating profusely for some unexplained reason. The stones that Bowser carries begin to float out of his hands, flying above his body in a circular formation. They continue to spin for ten seconds as the heroes watch with a great deal of interest. Then, after a brief moment of silence, Bowser is blasted by the combined energies of all six stones. This rainbow colored blast forces the group to cover their eyes due to the high intensity light that shines from within the blast. After it ends, the heroes look back at Bowser only to find that the stones have disappeared.

"What the..." Driad is puzzled, as is the rest of the group. Then, Bowser's pupils return. Except the rest of the eyes are now a blood drenched shade of red. The Koopa King says nothing, but from the looks of things, his body is starting to grow in size. "OH...this can't be good." Alex says with his eyelids wide open. As his mass increases, the scales on his back start to extend out from within, with his spikes also becoming increasingly longer with each passing second. His muscle tone starts to become more defined to fit with his increasing physique. The red hair on his head grows and spreads until it reaches the back of his neck. His horns lengthen, a new curve being added to them, making them seem more devilish in appearance. The colors on his body quickly change back to what they were before but then proceed to become darker in tone. The scales on his skin are also much more prominent then they were before. As he finishes his demonic transformation, Bowser let's out a blood curling roar that echoes loudly throughout the entire cave. The group has to plug their ears just to ensure that their ear drums don't bust.

Luigi begins nervously stepping backwards. Having recognized this creature before them, all he can do is mutter it's name in fear. "G-G-G-G-GIGA BOWSER!" "You've met this creature before Luigi?" Mallow asks the fear stricken plumber. "Yes. It was a while ago, but…Oh man, this can't be happening…We were barely able to defeat this creature before!" "We?" Alex asks. "Yes...I think there were about...34 of us or something, forgive me for not remembering…" Alex turns around and notices Giga Bowser staring at him, his mouth salivating slightly. "So what? The seven of us can take this guy down, no problem!" The next event that happens comes as a shock to him. From the ground emerges one vine which quickly wraps itself around the boy. Another vine appears below Geno and he meets the same fate as Alex. "What...The..." Before he can finish, both Alex and Geno find their energies drained away via the thorns on the vine. This process is quick and painless, and the vines retreat into the ground from whence they came. The wooden doll and the young boy both fall face first into the ground. The remaining five members of the group stare up at the hulking beast and realize just now that they are in for the fight of their lives. "This can't be..." Kamek says in a fear stricken tone. "This is the ultimate evolution of the Koopa...You fools have no chance of victory now! No one in the world does!" Alpha slams his left fist into the palm of his right hand. "That may be so, but I'll be damned if I choose to lie down like a dog and let this beast stomp me into dust! Now everyone, we fight for the Kingdom! For the chance to live and see another day! CHARGE!" Raising his right hand up into the air, the Commander changes his arm into its cannon form and rushes towards Giga Bowser. The rest of the group follows him in his charge, each one of them preparing themselves for the fight of their lives. Giga Bowser, no longer in control of his own mind or actions, just lets out another roar...

_Next Time: The End of the Cycle_


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34: Inferno Reunion II, Clash in the Volcano**

_The time is now 4:35 PM. The location? The Ignitor Cave, the final temple that holds the Element Overlord's power over fire. Bowser, the mighty Koopa King, has victory in his grasp. Having used the Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Peach, and the hero of the same Kingdom, Mario, as hostages he has claimed all seven element stones for himself. But then the unthinkable happened. The stones revolted against their new owner, and transformed him into the mighty beast, Giga Bowser. In an instant, the beast struck down the Star Herald Geno, and the boy, Alex Whiter. With only five heroes left, the situation looks grim. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, this single day will be their last one of peace..._

At the current moment, Giga Bowser stays silent. He is tanking everything that the heroes toss at him. Everything from Luigi's Thunderhand, Mallow's Shocker, Driad's Leaf Blade, none of them make the beast flinch. Landing back on the ground after delivering their attacks, the group wonders why the beast has yet to move. "He is just standing there..." The Crayzee Dayzee turns his blade arm back to it's normal form and lifts his head up, staring straight into the beast's bloodshot eyes. Noticing Driad, the beast's pupils shift to stare down at him, and he begins to raise his claw up into the air with the tips sparking with electric energy. "Ho boy..." The flower warrior bemoans. He then attempts to jump out of the way of the incoming claw swipe, but finds his feet are stuck to the ground. Lowering his head down, he finds that a block of ice has been formed around his two feet, keeping him nailed onto the ground. Widening his eyes in shock, he quickly turns his head around and watches the claw come ever closer to slashing his body in half, his pupils shrinking in fear of the situation.

Closing his eyelids to avoid seeing what happens next, he soon hears the sound of the claws clashing with a metallic object, a loud CLINK! ringing through his ears. Opening his eyes slowly, he finds Gemini in his demon form floating right in front of him, his trident being used to keep the claw at bay. "You shall not pass." The Koopa proclaims proudly with a slight medieval tone in his voice. The electricity at the end of the beast's claws are drained away, with the trident acting a conductor to absorb it all. As the beast tries to swipe at Gemini with his other claw, he merely ducks below it, taking his trident in his right hand and holding it out in front of his body, aiming at the beast's belly. "You can have it back now if you want it so badly." Cocking the bottom part of the trident, three separate rays of dark electricity are fired from the tips. In defense, a wall of rocks rises up from the ground and blocks the attack before it manages to hit. The electricity's impact with the wall creates a small explosion, making Gemini think that he hit his target. Lifting his body up and twirling his trident around in his hand, the Koopa looks pleased with the results. "Well, let us see you not react to that." He says with a great deal of pride.

"Great, good job Gemini." Driad says sarcastically, using his leaf blade to cut the ice and free himself. "You missed." Turning to look at his friend in confusion, Gemini quickly turns his head back around, watching as the dust from the explosion fades away to reveal the broken stone wall. The Koopa closes his eyelids, annoyed slightly by this matter. "You have got to be kidding me...We can't even make this beast flinch, and now he can also block our attacks?" The beast takes a step forward, the rest of the stone wall crumbling down as it makes contact with the creature's underside. The chunks of rock crack the charcoal ground below, releasing steam that was trapped underneath the surface. The beast then opens it's mouth up wide, flames at the ready. Frozen in fear, Gemini does not make any attempt to try and get out of the way before the flames are released. Suddenly, a metallic hand latches onto one of the beast's horns. With a quick pull, the beast's head is jerked to the right and the flames that fire from it's mouth end up missing it's target, instead burning through the rocks off to the side.

Gemini's eyes move to the left, where he finds Alpha with his feet planted firmly into the ground, using all of his strength to keep his hand gripped onto the horn of the beast. Not one to pass up this opportunity, Luigi takes a massive leap off of the ground and prepares to deliver a Super Conductor Punch right into the beast's face while it's distracted. Before Luigi's hit can connect, electricity begins to spark from the horns, not only zapping Luigi with about 10000 volts, but forcing Alpha to let go by frying the circuits in his fingers. Quickly retracting his hand back into his arm, the Commander switches it out for a thin, glowing red sword with some electricity like substance sparking around it. After being fried, the man in green slides down the beast's body, landing near his fallen brother with parts of his clothes singed and his eyes showing no signs of life. Luckily, he's only been knocked out, due to the fact that he is still breathing, if not a bit more heavily than before. "It's...a good thing...that I'm used to being zapped..." Luigi closes his eyelids, taking some time to rest and heal.

"This is absolute bullshit!" Alpha exclaims with righteous fury. Gemini, who has just finished helping Driad break out of the ice, is surprised by the fact that his normally stoic Commander is as upset as he is. "C-C-C-Commander?" Is all he can mutter. "Not only does Bowser pretty much have god like powers at this point, but our normal attacks don't do jack shit to him, and everytime we've tried to pull off an element based move it's like the stones inside his body automatically react and defend him, meaning we have no chance of beating him by using one of us as bait while another one of us launches a sneak attack, like me and Luigi tried to do just now." In anger, the Goomba takes his sword out in front of his body and uses it to cut the ground beneath him, carving a crescent shaped scar into the charcoal in the process.

"..." After a brief moment of silence, Alpha takes a deep breath, and in a way, everything just freezes up around him. Not a single object moves, breathes, or even thinks besides himself. He goes over all the information that this battle has given him, each person he thinks about glowing a different color based upon what their allegiance is. He thinks about what Bowser looked like before his transformation, and how his belly seemed to be scarred for some reason. He then projects a red wireframe model of Giga Bowser's body in his head. He calculates trajectories, formulates math equations to determine the correct output for the actions that he is about to perform, and finally he factors in the personalities of his remaining teammates to ensure that they will finish the battle for him. After all this, time resumes in the real world. Despite all that Alpha had to think about, only 10 seconds had truly gone by. "I got it..." After needlessly worrying about him, the return of Alpha's calm and collected tone causes Gemini to toss away any doubts he once had planted in his mind.

"Yes, Commander?" The young Koopa waits for his orders. "Mallow! Can you divert the beast's attention and make him turn about 36.7 degrees to the left at the same time?" Mallow, who has his Staff above his head in preparation to cast Star Rain, quickly turns his attention to Alpha as he calls his name out. "Ummm...His left or my left?" Sweatdrops form on the young cloud's forehead, nervously hoping that Alpha meant the first one. "HIS!" The Commander yells in response. "No problem then!" Having finished charging his magic, the cloud prince waves his staff at the beast. In an instant, a massive gap begins to form above Giga Bowser. Rays of heavenly light shine down in all directions, as an angelic latin chorus begins to sing from out of nowhere. Gemini and Driad stare up at the gap with a look of sheer awe in their eyes. "Whoa, Mallow's getting good..." The Koopa comments.

After all is said and done...A single, tiny star falls out of the gap and lightly lands on top of the beast's head, disappearing from existence almost immediately afterwards. "..." Driad and Gemini are disappointed by the outcome, especially after the build-up that led to it. Despite that, it did manage to do what Alpha wanted it to do, as now the beast's eyes are turned to stare at the embarrassed cloud prince. With that, Giga Bowser begins to turn, stomping it's massive feet on the ground as it moves. Due to the current adjustments in position, the beast's back will end up facing the Clown Copter he once rode. Kamek is hiding inside of it with a magic barrier up around the vehicle to make sure that neither he nor the Princess are accidentally harmed during the battle. Alpha runs behind the beast with his sword dragging along the ground. Once he is behind the tail, he turns around to stare at the spiked shell protecting the beast's delicate back.

"Alright, it's up to you after this Gemini..." Is all the Goomba whispers to himself. Holding his left arm out to his side, a single compartment opens up with a bunch of metallic rods connected together to form an oval coming out of it. With the latest in laser based technology built into the rods, Alpha is able to create a blue and red colored energy field that surrounds them. Leaping at the shell while he still has a chance, Alpha holds his sword behind his back and prepares to strike. The plates on the shell open up and multiple vines lash out from within to smack the Commander away. One vine succeeds, whipping itself across the Goomba's face to send him flying, but that was just what Alpha was hoping for. Quickly getting a hold of himself, the Goomba flips around in the air until his feet are in the perfect position to rebound off of the Clown Copter that floats behind him. He watches as the vines retreat back into the shell. "I have to time this perfectly..." He thinks to himself, his feet placed against the side of the flying vehicle. Gravity would take hold of him in five seconds, but it only took four seconds for the vines to fully retreat into the shell, and the Commander used the last second to bounce off the vehicle and fly at the beast with greater speeds than before.

This time around, the beast's spikes begin sparking in self-defense. Alpha holds his shield out in front of his face, successfully blocking the lightning rays that are fired from the tips. There's enough room off to the side of the shield for the Commander's sword, which he holds out in front of his body. The sword is neatly jabbed through the hard shell plates, where it pierces through the delicate skin underneath. Experiencing a great deal of pain, the beast releases a loud, violent roar from it's mouth. In turn, the electricity's voltage is cranked up to ridiculous heights, which allows it to short-circuit Alpha's shield and deliver a powerful shock to the Goomba's body. He calmly takes in all that the beast can throw at him until his laser sword blows up due to being overloaded with energy, causing him to be sent flying backwards with his body made crispy by the attack. He does not look to be in pain though, as one can see a joyous grin on his face as he slams into the side of the Clown Copter, causing it to be knocked out of the sky and fall straight onto the ground.

"COMMANDER!" Gemini yells out, and as he begins to run over to try and help him out he is stopped by Driad. With one vine wrapped around the Koopa's right arm, the flower looks him straight in the eyes after he turns his head around in confusion, and slowly shakes his head back and forth. "We are down to three people. With Alpha down that leaves you as the one that has to lead us now. It's now or never, Lieutenant Gemini." Taking in the serious tone in Driad's voice, Gemini takes a moment to calm down and think things over, just like his Commander would want him to do. He wonders why he sacrificed himself just to attack that single spot on the beast's back..."Was he showing us a weakspot?" "Did he just want to go out in a blaze of glory?" "Or was he testing something, hoping we would pick up on it and later use it to win..." All these questions raced through Gemini's mind. As such, he did not notice that Giga Bowser had recovered from Alpha's attack. In fact, the beast looked as though he was never truly damaged at all.

"Look out!" Mallow exclaims. This sudden outcry of his snapped Gemini out of his period of deep thinking, allowing him to quickly turn around and use his trident to block an incoming punch from the beast. Even with all of his strength, the Koopa is pushed down into the ground by the impact of the punch, which also creates a crater around his body. "That's it..." As waves of cold begin to flow through the beast's fist and deep freeze his trident, Gemini figures out what to do. "Mallow! Driad! The beast can only use one element at a time when guarding specific areas of it's body!" "Really?" The Crayzee Dayzee slaps his forehead, suddenly coming to realize how obvious this flaw in the beast's defenses was. "That makes sense! When Alpha attacked the beast's back, he was using an electric sword to pierce the shell. If the defense was so perfect, then all the beast would need to do is turn his skin to rocks to avoid getting hurt like it did!"

"Exactly!" Gemini retracts the staff on his trident and tucks the prongs into his shell, quickly tucking the rest of his body into it as well and sliding away to avoid the punch. Re-emerging from his shell next to Driad, the Lieutenant points at the beast's gut with his left hand. "That's it's weakpoint. If I can land an attack on it, we should be able to win." Gemini then waves to Mallow with his right hand. The cloud prince quickly rushes to the Lieutenant's side, awaiting the Koopa's orders. "Mallow, I will first need you to wet the front of the beast's belly. That way I will deal a lot more damage to Bowser when I fire off my attack. Driad, use some leaves as a distraction so Mallow can freely use his spell."

"I'm on it!" Driad salutes Gemini then turns towards the beast, ready to execute the plan. The living flower holds his right vine up into the air and waves it down towards the ground. From the vines emerge a storm of leaves which fly towards the vulnerable belly of the beast. As expected, flames emerge from the ground to turn the leaves to ash. Mallow has already finished charging the spell necessary for them to secure their victory though. Holding his staff out horizontally in front of his body, the weapon begins to glow a bright shade of blue. In an instant, a hole opens up in front of him, and from it a powerful stream of water emerges. Flying through the air, the water meets it's target after the flames that once defended it had already died down. The hole vanishes and a trail of water leading from Mallow's feet to the underside of the beast's belly remains. During all of this, Gemini has placed both of his hands in front of his body, charging up tons of dark electric energy in the center of them both. Noticing this, the beast summons another rock wall in front of it's body to defend himself. The demon Koopa is unaffected by this though, and merely shakes his head as red lightning starts to emerge from his chest. The lightning wraps itself around the completed black sphere, sparking uncontrollably between his palms. "You will now see why they call me the Blood Thunder."

Using all of his strength, Gemini raises the orb above his head, leaning backwards to ensure that enough force is put into tossing the attack out. Thrusting his body forward, the Lieutenant's head leans down so he's staring down at the ground, and as his hands are placed in front of his body a massive black electric beam is fired through the rocky wall with the occasional stream of red lightning sparking around it. The water along the ground acts as a conductor, turning the simple beam attack into a massive wave that carves a path through the ground on it's journey to hit Giga Bowser's weakpoint. With it's only defense broken through, the beast can do nothing but stand and watch as the attack smashes right into his belly. The pain is unbearable for the creature, as it rears it's head back and lets out a blood curling roar. A multitude of black sparks fly out from the impact radius. As six different colored orbs are shot out of the beast's body, it begins to slowly shrink down to it's original size. Once the attack finishes doing it's damage, all that remains on the ground is a battered and beaten to exhaustion Bowser, who is back to the form he took after eating the Fire Stone. This appearance does not stick for long though, as the Fire Stone itself is ejected from the Koopa King's mouth, where it lands safely in front of Gemini's feet.

The Lieutenant lifts his head up off the ground, the wings and helmet that show off his demonic appearance vanishing back into his shell. "They call me the Blood Thunder because I can convert some of the blood in my body into electricity to power up my attacks...Now, if you'll excuse me..." The Koopa falls on the ground, for having converted too much blood for that final attack has left him exhausted. Mallow and Driad look around, seeing not only that the stones have been scattered everywhere, but the fallen bodies of everyone who has fought this battle. In particular, the cloud Prince notices that the Princess is lying on the ground, still bound and gagged by the ropes on her body. "Hey, Driad, gather up the stones while I check up on the Princess, ok?" Driad nods his head, and Mallow rushes to the Princess' side. As he approaches though he hears a familiar groan coming from Bowser's body. Turning his head towards the Koopa King, he is absolutely shocked to see him rising up off the ground. Despite the damage to his body, he still has enough energy to keep himself up on his own two feet. After fully arising, the Koopa King grabs onto his head, finding himself suffering from a massive headache.

"Urgh...what...happened..." He moans. Taking a look around, he notices the damage done by himself while he was Giga Bowser. Not having any recollection of that battle, all he remembers is that he was on the verge of winning. Upon seeing the stones scattered around and the Princess lying defenseless in front of him, he slowly begins to walk towards her. "I...haven't lost...I'll just take Peach, and use her as a hostage for the stones again..." Mallow takes his staff and tries to cast a spell, but finds that he has run out of MP. "Darn it all! DRIAD!" The Nimbusian desperately cries out to the living flower. After picking up the Water Stone, Driad turns around and notices Bowser looming over Peach's body. "Oh no...NO!" As Bowser's claw lowers, Driad begins to run towards him with leaf blade formed. But he stops...Not because it was too late, but because Bowser's claw ends up not making contact with Peach's body. Why? Because standing before him is the person that has been a constant pest in his life for a while now, the hero that has stayed loyal to the Kingdom and Peach for years, the one, the only, Mario.

"Mario..." Mallow says quietly. "How can he still be moving after Bowser broke his back..." Driad thinks to himself. Holding back Bowser's claw with one hand, the Koopa King thinks that the plumber is merely a hallucination. "You can't...possibly...be moving...after..." Mario holds his other fist behind his back, and flames ignite around it. "Well, perhaps I really shouldn't be moving...You sure tried your hardest to win this time around..." Bowser can only show anger at the fact that the plumber has beating him yet again, but at the same time, he feels a deep sense of happiness inside of his heart. "...BWAHAHAHAHA!" His familiar laugh echoes throughout the room. "You may have won this round Mario, but rest assured I shall return, and Peach will be mine!" Mario grins, his smile reaching from cheek to cheek. "Ok then...So long, eh Bowser?" With that, the plumber takes his fist and smashes it right into Bowser's jaw. Sure a few bones are broken here and there in the process, but as the Koopa King is sent flying up through the air thanks to the impact of Mario's fist, he is just happy that he gets another chance to face his eternal rival. "BWAHAHAHAHA! I AM THE ETERNAL KOOPA KING, BOWSER! I WILL BE BAAAAAAAAAA-" As he flies through the hole in the ceiling, his voice fades away, eventually becoming silent. Kamek follows soon after riding in the Clown Copter. "WAIT FOR ME MY LORD!"

Mario breathes a heavy sigh of relief, and then falls to the ground again. His body only had enough energy to pull off that heroic move, amd now he must rest. Then, it suddenly hits Mallow. "Wait...HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET OUT OF HERE?" "I can help with that..." A gruff voices breaks the tension, and Mallow turns to find a fried Alpha walking towards him with his arms held behind his back. "Wait...How are you still able to move? Shouldn't the electricity-" "When you've lived as long as I have, you eventually learn that there are worse things to suffer through than about a hundred thousand volts of electricity running through your veins." Brushing off his left arm, the Commander opens up the compartment where the button for his copter lays. "Luckily enough, this button still works. I'll just call the copter and have it come in through the ceiling above us. It should be able to pinpoint where we are and come instantly. In the mean time, help Driad there pick up the rest of the Element Stones." The Nimbusian nods his head, and rushes off to collect the stones. Alpha takes a look at Gemini, who has the Fire Stone tightly grasped in his hands. With a smile on his face, the Commander is glad to see that everything went just as he planned. "You knew what to do after all...Good job, Gemini." Speaking only to himself, Alpha stares up at the sun's bright lights that are seeping in through the hole in the ceiling. This...Is the planet's last day of peace...

_Next Time: The Countdown to Rebirth Begins_


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35: Interference Final: Glory of the Comet**

_"It was as the prophecy predicted...The boy has all seven stones..." _In the deep reaches of a fog covered forest, Cackletta is seen by herself, speaking of tales long since buried in the ravages of time. _"Mistress, where are you going?" _The witch's colleague Fawful asks. _"Acting out of duty, the brave guards of the Overlord's will shall sacrifice themselves to ensure that evil does not bring about Armageddon upon all living things..." _As she speaks this strange sentence, the witch uses her wrinkly old hands to pull a purple hood over her head. _"Mistress, shall I speak to the fiends of mysterious origin and motives?" "Yes. My entire plan rests on acquiring the Overlord's power, if I fail, then they need to be ready to prepare plan B..." "So you shall be going to that place?" "Yes...The Overlord thinks he hid his precious Origin Temple well...A grave error that will cost him dearly..." _After finishing their conversation, Fawful nods his head and disappears into the fog. Cackletta herself continues to press onward through the forest, heading towards the shadow of a massive temple that lies in the distance.

Back at Toad Town, those who had fallen in the battle with Giga Bowser are currently seen resting on top of separate hospital beds. Mallow and Driad have chosen to stay behind in order to keep an eye on them. Alpha has to explain to the hospital crew that he is unharmed, despite the presence of a few burn marks on his body from being electrocuted earlier on. Retreating into his copter, the Commander begins to fix any broken parts on his arms. Plenty of wires have been singed, but Alpha came prepared for such a situation to happen and pulls some spare wires out from within a cabinet on the wall. As he works, one could tell that something was greatly bothering him. "...I need to figure out the truth from him tonight..." He whispers to himself. "Need to figure out what now?" Looking over his shoulder, he finds Geno standing right outside of his copter. "Well now, you sure recovered quickly..." Signaling him to come in by waving his right hand, Geno jumps into the copter and begins to approach the workbench that Alpha is working at. "This vessel I currently inhabit is blessed by the Star Spirit's, allowing me to recover at a much faster pace than most creatures in this world."

Alpha smirks, letting a little "Ha..." slip out of his mouth upon hearing the Star Herald's explanation. "Honestly, that would've been my first guess..." Continuing to fuse some wires together, Geno leans over the Commander's shoulder to watch him work. "So, you got something to say to me? You must have some reason for being here right now." He asks. "As a matter of fact, I do." Geno moves his head away from Alpha's shoulder, taps him on it and turns around. As he begins to walk out of the copter, Alpha turns his chair around and with a flick of the arm all of his open compartments close instantly. Jumping off the chair to follow the Star Herald, he finds him staring up at the bright, starlit sky above. "Hmph, I must admit the night sky looks absolutely exhilarating to gaze at right now...Hmm?"

The Commander's eye focuses on a single, solitary star in the sky which seems to be slowly fading out, the light surrounding it becoming dimmer with each passing second. "Well, it seems as though one has died out...A tragic moment, but it had stayed in the reaches of space for millions of years anyways, so-" "Ten." Geno interrupts. Lowering his head and raising an eyebrow in confusion, Alpha wonders why the Star Herald said that one number. "Ten stars have faded completely from the night sky during the last twenty-seven minutes alone." Closing his eyes and folding his head into his chest, the doll continues to list off more info about the stars. "Fifty-six more stars are beginning to fade away right now..." "What is the meaning of this madness? Do the Star Spirits know that this is going on right now?" In anger, Alpha slams his fist into the wall of his copter, denting it in the process.

"I'm sorry..." Geno regretfully says. "But I am unable to contact them at this time...They've blocked out all communications..." "What?" The Commander states in a flat tone. "They aren't even letting their own herald talk to them?" "...I don't understand myself..." The doll's attempts to pity himself do not fool Alpha, who realizes that the doll is keeping some secrets from not just himself, but the rest of the group as well. "Geno, cut it out." He states bluntly. Geno opens his eyes and lifts his head up, looking over his shoulder to watch as Alpha jumps off of the side of the copter. Landing gently on the ground, the back of his trenchcoat rises up into the air slightly, before quickly lowering itself soon after. "You higher beings always think that just because you have a position of power, means that you can keep hiding the truth away from the rest of us so-called 'Mortals'" Geno turns around, and prepares for a possible fight against the Commander by raising his arms up in front of his chest and turning them into miniature cannons. Surprisingly though, Alpha raises his right hand not to summon a weapon, but to place it down onto the doll's left shoulder. As Geno's guns are pressed against Alpha's skin, the herald begins to feel nervous, unable to read what the Commander's next move could possibly be. "Geno, if the Star Spirit's know some things about the Overlord and the things he did on this planet, then would it be possible for you to tell me, my friend?" This came as quite a surprise to the doll. He thought that Alpha would try and force the answer out of him through brute force. But instead, he took a polite approach and asked him in a very delicate tone of voice. Taking a few moments to think of a way to respond to the question, Geno decides that in a situation such as this one, he should no longer keep the truth hidden from his friends. Returning his arms to their normal state and placing them by his sides, Geno gets ready to spill everything he knows. "Very well Alpha..." After he takes a deep breath and lets out a powerful sigh from his mouth, the Commander lets go of Geno's shoulder and takes a couple steps back to let him speak. Raising his head up to look at the Commander straight in the eye, Geno crosses his arms and begins to explain everything he knew...

Back inside of the hospital, Driad sits on a single bar stool that rests besides Gemini's bed. With his hands resting on his lap, the flower is whistling Alex's favorite Mozart tune. Curious to see how Mallow is faring, he turns his head to the left, only to find that the cloud prince is resting his head down on top of the same bed where Luigi is currently resting at. The feeling of tranquility that resides in the room at this moment causes a little smile to appear on the flower's face. Seeing the sheets ruffling from the corner of his eye, Driad turns his attention towards Gemini, where he sees the Koopa waking up from his deep sleep. His first attempt to view his surroundings ends immediately once his pupils make contact with the bright lights on the ceiling. To get around this, Gemini repeatedly blinks his eyelids until his eyes themselves adjust to the lights. Then he is able to raise his head up off the pillow that it was resting on and start taking a look around. The first thing he notices is Driad sitting down on a chair while at him with a pleased expression on his face. "Ugh..." He moans. "How long was I out for Driad?"

"Four hours." Driad quickly responds. "...How is everyone else doing?" Gemini says, his voice sounding tired and weak due to just waking up. "Well, after defeating Bowser we came back to Toad Town to get all of you guys here to recover. Alpha went off to repair his arms, Geno has left already, Mario went to visit Peach at her castle, and you can tell how Mallow and Luigi are doing if you just look to your right." As he speaks the last part of his sentence, he lifts one of his arms up to point towards the two. Gemini slowly turns his head, and upon seeing how relaxed the both of them look he lets a little laugh out. "And Alex?" Driad shrugs his shoulders. "Don't know myself." The flower states in an honest tone. "All I know is that Mario snuck the stones he had into his pants pockets before he left." "I see..." Gemini closes his eyelids and nods his head. He turns around and lies back down onto the pillow, resting his arms behind his head and staring up towards the ceiling. "I'm glad you are still awake, Driad. I need to talk to you about a certain battle..."

Tilting his head to the right, Driad wonders what Gemini is going to ask him about. "Oh?" Is all he says, a curious tone slipping from his lips. "Which battle is on your mind?" "The one where you and Alex fought against that beast outside the Frozen Palace..." Driad tightly grasps onto his legs upon hearing those words. "Don't tell me he found out..." He thinks to himself. He breathes in slowly and quietly through his nostrils. "No, keep yourself together Driad...If you do anything suspicious he'll figure you out immediately." "Alright, what about that battle Gemini?" Gemini reaches into his shell and pulls out a small wooden splinter from within. "See this? I found this after the battle ended." The Crayzee Dayzee swiftly recognized the splinter, but kept himself quiet to avoid raising Gemini's suspicions. "I found it lodged inside of the scar on the beast's eye...Now, Alex used the stone's powers later on against the revived Crystal King, so he clearly wasn't responsible for the beast's defeat. You, on the other hand, the creation of wood would be easy for you to accomplish, so I assume that it was you that defeated the guardian, correct?"

"Yes." Driad honestly replies in an instant. Gemini closes his eyelids slightly, staring at the splinter that is grasped in between his fingers. "Well, I thank you for your honest response...But that just makes me more concerned about the results of that battle." Releasing his grip on the splinter, the Koopa lets it fall right down onto his palm, where he then closes his hand around it. "You don't strike me as the kind who would kill someone...Or rather, not the kind of person who would kill someone as violently as you did to that guardian." Driad gulps. Gemini knew too much...But he wasn't ready to call it quits yet. "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself there Gemini? Sure you found a splinter in the guardian's eye, but that doesn't mean much. Do you have any proof that I created it?" Driad figured that that would be enough to get Gemini to stop his pursuit, but he was unaware of just how prepared the Koopa was for this debate.

"Oh? My sound logic was not good enough for you? Very well, then let me tell you this. I ran the splinter through a DNA Analyzer, and guess what?" Driad's body starts creating dew, due to intense feeling of nervousness that his body is now experiencing. "It matched yo-" "OK! I ADMIT IT!" Driad says out loud, his voice breaking up as he talks. Tears begin to appear in the flower's eyes and slowly trickle down his cheeks. Using his vines to cover his face in shame, the flower begins to moan quietly to himself. Gemini, now feeling guilty over pushing Driad as far as he did, tosses the splinter off to the side of the bed and lifts his body up off the mattress in order to comfort the crying flower. "I did it...I killed the guardian in cold blood...I...I remembered bits of my past, and the next thing I know...I transformed into this wolf like creature...and..and in a fit of anger...I...I'm a murderer…I've probably killed so many innocent people throughout my life…I…I'm so sorry Gemini, I'm so, so sorry!" Driad continues to cry. Not even Gemini placing one of his hands on his right shoulder in an attempt to comfort him was enough to stop him. It was not until he started talking that the Crayzee Dayzee quiets down to hear him out.

"I know how you feel Driad. You were granted new powers, but at the time you were emotionally unstable, blinded only by rage. With your newfound powers, you took your rage out on the closest person in sight, not thinking about how your actions would affect those around you. It is only until someone close to you gets hurt, either emotionally or physically, that you stop your rampage..." Ending his session of sorrow, Driad moves his hands away from his eyes. "Point is, you know why you did what you did, correct? Now it's up to you to decide...Are you going to live in fear of your new powers, or are you going to learn to control and use them for the good of the world?" "Gemini...You really do understand...But why?" The Koopa lifts one hand up and creates a few electric sparks in the palm. "You think I was just given these powers and instantly I was able to master them? I've spent six years trying to get used to these powers of mine, and I still know that there is plenty more for me to learn about them." Gemini dispels the sparks and places his hand down on his lap. A frown slowly grows on his face, as he begins to feel a bit down. "Besides...Before I joined the M.S.I., I was a simple Koopa that lived in Koopa Village...When I first got my powers, I hurt a few of the folk that lived there. It was an accident, but all the same I still felt guilty about what happened. After that day, I vowed that I would not return there until I was able to fully accept these powers that had been cursed upon me..."

"So that scarf on your arm…Is it a memento given to you by a friend that you knew there?" Driad points one hand towards the red scarf wrapped around Gemini's left arm. Gazing over to look at it, the Koopa falls silent for a few seconds. "...I'd rather not talk about it." He replies in a somber tone "That's fine by me, just thought I would ask." Driad now seems to be in a much better mood than he was a few moments ago. Gemini stops moping around and takes a look at the nearby clock. "1:03 AM? Since we probably got about seven hours until we will depart for the final temple, how about you and I head into the nearby woods and spar for a bit?" Flinging the sheets off from on top of his bed, the Lieutenant eagerly jumps out of the bed and stretches his arms out to get his muscles working again. "Are you certain about this? Shouldn't you be resting?" Driad's words of concern simply fly over Gemini's head. "I'm alright, don't worry about it. We don't have much time, so I just want to make sure that you get used to your new powers before our time is up." "Alright then!" Driad, with a determined look on his face, jumps off of his chair and head around the bed to join Gemini as he walks out of the room. On their way down the hall, they meet Alpha, who is walking towards the back of the hospital. "Where are you going at this hour Lieutenant?" The Commander asks. "Me and Driad are going to do some late night sparring. Want to join in?" Alpha shakes his head. Understanding his feelings on the matter, Gemini and Driad continue on their way, leaving Alpha to continue his trip towards the room where Alex is currently resting at...

Inside Peach's Castle, we find the Princess standing by herself near her destroyed throne. As she watches the Toads work from over her shoulder, she feels relieved to be back home. "The Castle was damaged immensely when Bowser invaded...It's been through worse though, I suppose." Turning her head back around, a blue silhouette appears right before Peach's eyes. Dressed in royal clothes like Peach herself, the person represented in this silhouette carries around a small wand with a star on the tip. _"It's been a while since you last called." _The silhouette says in a peaceful voice. _"I was afraid something may have happened to you and the planet." _"No, I was just kidnapped by Bowser. Nothing too threatening at all about that." _"I see." _The person calmly responds. "Anyways...You have felt it too, haven't you? Now that all seven stones have been collected, that feeling of impending doom..." _"Yes. I have been feeling it for some time now. I am currently on my way to the planet..." _"Is everything going to be ok?" _"That is something not even I can predict..." _The silhouette vanishes instantly, leaving Peach to be concerned about the planet's future...

After visiting the castle, Mario went over to professor E. Gadd's lab to find out about the final temple's location. There the plumber hands the iGadd over to the professor, but instead of inputting the device into his computer, E. Gadd merely lays it down on one of his cleared off tables. "You won't be needing that anymore." He says. Confused, Mario takes off his hat and scratches the top of his head with his other hand. "What do you mean by that?" "Well, from what I understand, the final temple where the remnants of the Overlord's power resides is protected by a barrier of sorts meant to keep others from entering. Should they attempt to enter, they will only end up coming out on the other side of where they entered at. Not only that, but the barrier makes the temple appear to be invisible in the first place." E. Gadd turns around and begins walking towards the Stargadd. "So how are we supposed to get inside?" "The tablet gives a specific set of coordinates that would allow one to teleport inside of the barrier. I just need to input them into the Stargadd and..." The Professor thus begins to type away at the control panel, mainly pressing down on the number buttons on there.

Upon entering all the info correctly the portal activates right before Mario's eyes. Backing away from the it, E. Gadd wipes some sweat from his brow and heads back to where the plumber is standing at. "Tomorrow, when you and your friends have all gathered here, you can use this portal to head to the final temple." Mario rubs his chin, something clearly on his mind about the final temple. "Do you know what we should expect to find at this temple?" The professor merely shakes his head back and forth, unable to truthfully answer Mario's important question. "The tablet only stated the location, nothing more, nothing less." "So, we shall pretty much be going in completely unprepared for any traps and/or enemies, correct?" "From the sounds of things, yes." E. Gadd rears his head back and lets out one of his signature laughs. "Ohohohohoho, but you and your friends should be able to handle anything that comes your way." Mario looks off towards the stairs, thinking about someone in particular in his group. "There's only one in our group that I am really worried about..." The plumber says quietly...

Back inside Alpha's copter, we find the Commander standing by himself. In front of him sits Alex, who is currently strapped into a chair with wires taped onto his knees and shoulders. "Wake up, Alex Whiter." Snapping his metallic fingers together creates a loud enough sound that forces the boy to instantly open his resting eyelids. "Huh? Wha-" Wildly swinging his head back and forth, Alex realizes that he is not only inside Alpha's copter for some reason, but he finds that he has been strapped down to a chair. He neither feels nor sees the wires attached to his body though. "What is the meaning of this Alpha?" Alex exclaims in bewilderment. The Commander holds one of his hands up into the air, and Alex automatically stops panicking. "Calm yourself Alex, I mean you no harm." Scrunching his eyebrows in suspicion, the boy tilts his head towards his left shoulder, having just noticed the wires attached to his body. "Oh yeah? Then explain these." "Do not worry, they will only harm you if you allow them to do so. I merely have a few questions to ask you. Please answer honestly, your lies cannot escape my S.E.N.S.E.S."

"What, are you some kind of living lie detector?" Alex questions. "Oh no no no no." Alpha smiles and shakes his head back and forth slowly. "S.E.N.S.E.S. means Sentient Electron and Neuron Stimulator Eradicates Secrecy. Simply put, if you lie to me, the wires attached to your body will deliver a short yet powerful jolt to your nervous system. Continue to lie, and your body will be put in a prolonged state of paralysis." Folding his arms behind his back, Alpha stares at the boy, waiting for his response. Not really having a choice in the matter, Alex releases a heavy sigh from his body and decides to just ride this ordeal out to the end. "Very well...Let us get this over with so I can go back to sleep."

"It's nice to know that you are willing to cooperate. Let us start off with something simple. How old are you?" "Eleven years old." Alex answers quickly. Nothing happens. "Ok, so far so good. Now, you certain that you know nothing about why Joe Dark hates you?" "I told you yesterday, I know NOTHING." Alpha waits a few seconds, thinking the machine might be having a delayed reaction, but the boy never gets shocked by it. "Well I'll be..." Alpha mumbles to himself. "Any other questions you want to toss at me?" The boy responds with arrogance "Why yes..." The Commander cracks his knuckles behind his back. The realistic sound of bones cracking is quite unsettling to Alex, as sweat starts to form on his forehead. "I've noticed something very interesting as you went about your journey Alex. Every time someone in your group brought up your parents, you always went silent and never answered their questions. Is it because your parents abuse you? Is it because they never spend enough time with you? Do they have a secret that makes you ashamed of them? Or maybe..." The Commander pulls his right hand out from behind his back and clenches it tightly into the shape of a fist. "They are already dead?"

"No!" Alex lashes his body out at Alpha, restrained only by the ropes tied around his arms and legs. "They are still alive!" At that moment, electricity coarsens through the wires and delivers a powerful electric shock to Alex's nervous system, just like Alpha said it would. As the boy remains helpless to defend himself, the Commander merely shakes his head, pitying the boy for attempting to lie to him. "Hmmm...The machine says otherwise." As the electricity dies down, smoke rises from Alex's singed body, and the boy takes deep breaths in an attempt to recover from such a painful experience. "I...am not...lying..." Alex says. It is easy to see that just one shock was too much for his poor young body to handle, but he keeps himself going through sheer force of will. But will that be enough to help him survive another one? The machine activates once again, and as more electricity burns through his nervous system, the boy screams out in pain. Alpha folds his right hand behind his back, angrily frowning at the fact that Alex is being so resilient. When the machine dies down, Alex's body looks horrible. Another shock could kill him, and he knows it. Yet he chooses not to yield. "WHY DO YOU CHOOSE TO RESIST?" Alpha yells out. "Would you rather die than tell the truth?"

"...Hufff...I have no reason to yield...because what I say...is...the truth..." The Commander clenches his fists tightly, at this point the pressure he is putting on the metal causes it to start becoming bent. Before the machine activates again, the copter's door is forced open by Mario, who happened to hear Alex's screams as he was walking by. Not wasting even a single second, the plumber leaps into the vehicle and rips the wires attached to Alex's body away before they shock him. "Mario?" Alpha says with a look of utter surprise on his face. After freeing the boy from the ropes, Mario stands up and turns his head to look at Alpha. A burning rage could be seen in his eyes, disgusted at what the Commander did to the boy. "What do you think you are doing Alpha?" Mario exclaims, fiercely pointing his left pointer finger at the angered Commander. "Don't you dare point a finger at me when you don't even know what happened here tonight!" Alpha accuses the plumber of falsely blaming him of any wrong doings, but the plumber merely holds his other hand out towards where Alex sits, pointing out the smoke that's still floating from his body.

"I hear screams of pain, find Alex strapped to a chair, see signs of electrocution, and you try to act innocent in the face of all of this evidence?" "Alex brought this upon himself Mario. He chose to resist telling the truth!" "The truth?" "Yes! The truth Mario! When I asked him if his parents were dead, he denied it, and said they were alive!" "Oh, WELL THAT MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER! Why would you need to know if his parents are alive or not anyways?" "You are a fool Mario! On the field of battle, those who choose to hide important information from their allies are lower than scum!" "And how is information on Alex's parents relevant at all?" "You can't figure that out yourself? Then let me spell it out for you! I'm trying to figure out the reason as to why Joe Dark targeted Alex myself!" "Why do you need to? He's dead!" "NO HE'S NOT!" Alpha's last comment forces Mario to finally become silent. The fury in his eyes vanishes, instead replaced by confusion. "What?" Is all the plumber can bring himself to say. "I didn't think it mattered that much at first when I saw his body moving in my Control Sphere, but I can sense the discord that looms in the air. Stars are vanishing from the night sky, the Star Spirits aren't talking to Geno, and the fact that Cackletta continues to be involved...I think that Joe Dark might be-"

"Alpha..." Alex weakly speaks, but it's enough to get the Commander's attention. Ending his argument with Mario immediately, Alpha looks at the boy, noticing that despite what he just went through, he has a smile on his face. "Mario...He warned me ahead of time about the consequences if I lied...Though it was wrong for him to kidnap me from the hospital and tie me to this machine...It was stupid of me to lie, knowing fully well that it would cause me pain...I guess I didn't want to reveal the truth about my parents because I thought it would make me...seem weak...But refusing to cope with the past...and look to the future makes me weaker than dirt..." After a quick breather, Alex continues to talk. "Mario, you can hate Alpha all you want for doing this to me...It will take me some time to forgive him as well, despite most of it being my fault in the first place...But we need to be able to work together...to conquer the last temple...As for my parents...I will tell everyone in our group the truth about them in the morning...For now…I need to rest..."

As Alex runs out of energy, his body falls out of the chair. He does not land on the ground though, for Alpha manages to catch him in the nick of time by stretching both of his arms out along the ground. Walking towards the chair, the Commander keeps the boy lifted into the air with one hand, while creating a needle on the tip of one of his fingers in the other. The needle is quickly poked into Alex's neck, and after injecting something into him he pulls it out and tosses the boy onto his shoulder. "I injected a serum into his body that will allow his nerves to recover quickly...I didn't intentionally put him in a situation where he would be harmed without preparing a healing serum beforehand. Like I've said before, I put everyone else's safety before my own..." Alpha walks out of his copter, heading towards the pipe that leads to Mario's house. The plumber, after being both disturbed and surprised by Alpha's actions, decides that it's for the best that he gets some rest himself, and follows the Commander as he treks through the moonlit streets of Toad Town...

The next day, everyone has gathered inside Mario's house to hear Alex's story. As the boy sits down on the brothers' couch with his elbows resting on the upper part of his legs and his hands folded together out in front of his face, the rest of the group can be seen sitting either on the remaining chairs in the living room or on the cold wooden floor. As they eagerly await the boy's tale, he raises his head to look towards them all. "I have gathered all of you today because I have kept something from all of you...It was foolish of me to do so, and it took a few thousand volts of electricity to enlighten me about what I need to do..." Tilting his head to the right, Driad has something to say to Alex. "Alex, can I say something before you begin?" After Alex nods his head, Driad returns his head back to it's normal position. "I would like to let you know, that no matter how bad this secret of yours is, we will still like you all the same." "Well thank you Driad." The boy replies with a smile, though he quickly reverts back to a straight face a few seconds later. "But this secret has nothing to do with me, exactly. It has to do with my parents..."

"Mario...I told you my parents were off on a vacation...That's not true. In fact, they haven't been alive for 5 years now..." The boy closes his eyes. Everything is quiet, until Mario speaks up for the entire group. "What happened to them?" He asks. "..." Alex stays silent, thinking to himself about how this past tragedy is a painful experience for him to go through again, but he knows that he has to get through this here and now. "I don't remember much, but I'll try my hardest to tell you the tale anyways..."

_"When I was younger, me and my parents would always take trips through the countryside on Saturday nights...Usually we would go to the hills and gaze up at the stars, sometimes with my father getting into a counting contest with my mom to see just how many stars could be seen in the night sky. One day, I ended up falling asleep while we were stargazing. My mom carried me back to the car and tucked me into a nice warm blanket so I wouldn't catch a cold, and before she left she started the radio up...The song that was playing at the very moment was Mozart's 'Presto from the Divertimento in D Major'... I was asleep for only five minutes, when I was suddenly awoken by this loud explosive sound. Jerking my head up off the seat, I peered outside the back window...Only to find a massive blue fire had engulfed the hillside where my parents were standing before..."_

_"At the time, I was unable to comprehend what was going on...My heart raced, my mind couldn't think clearly...Until THEY showed up. Members from the FBI, a highly advanced and mysterious organization from my planet, arrived at the scene of the explosion. Freeing me from within the locked car, they took me into custody due to the fact that I was a witness to the events that had transpired on that hilltop tonight. I was knocked out, and awoke inside of their base two days later. The chief wanted me to explain the situation, but I knew nothing...It was then that an astrologist that worked for them came into the room and told the Chief about what hit the hilltop. It was a comet...Not just any comet though...It was Halley's Comet, the most well known comet on our world. The chief was baffled, I remember clearly. The comet should not have even come close to approaching the Earth for a long time...It was an unexplainable cosmic phenomenon...A phenomenon that took my parents away from me..."_

_"The FBI tried to find records on any living relatives of mine...As they tried their hardest, I sat by myself...At such a young age, I knew nothing about the meanings of either life nor death...I thought they had just vanished, and would eventually show up soon enough to save me...Five more days passed, and they never came...The FBI were unable to find anyone who was related to both my mom and my dad...In our world, we no longer allowed adoptions or slavery, so the only choice left was for me to live by myself, supervised by a few FBI agents who worked in that sector of America...With their funding, I was able to go to school, eat proper meals, and even be allowed to buy my own clothes...But it all felt so empty...It may have missed physically, but in a way that comet had killed a part of me that day...As months turned to years, I eventually just found ways to keep myself preoccupied...I was forced to grow up on my own in order to survive...And yet, deep down, there is a part of me that wishes to feel my mother's warm embrace once again..."_

As Alex tells his tale, you can tell that it ends up becoming increasingly harder for him to speak clearly, and tears begin to well up in his eyes. When he finishes, he takes the hands of his that are folded in front of his face, covers his eyes up, and begins to sob quietly. A few people in the group are trying to hold the tears back in their eyes, but even they cannot help but cry after hearing Alex's sad tale. After a few moments of silence, Driad stands up and walks over to the boy. He holds his arms out, wrapping his vines slowly around Alex's body to give him a nice warm hug. He presses the side of his head down against Alex's arms, with his tear dripped eyes closed and a smile on his face. "I may not be a mother, and I probably can't act as a replacement for her...But does this feel good to you nonetheless, Alex?" Alex stops crying for a moment, and parts his hands to look at Driad's act of kindness. Not soon after, Mallow gets up and walks over to Alex, followed by Geno, Luigi, Gemini, Alpha, and finally Mario all hug Alex together. As they do this, he lets out a little sniffle, his heart warmed by what everyone is doing for him. "You guys..." Using a single finger to wipe away the tears that have built up in his eyes, a bright and cheerful smile appears on the boy's face. "Thank you...Thank you so much for doing this..."

Up in the Star Sanctuary, the Star Spirits are talking to the same blue silhouette that Peach was speaking to a few hours ago. "You are violating our agreement, space princess, by showing your face here today..." Eldstar says in a bitter tone. "Not only that, but you are plucking the stars out of space...You may rule over the cosmos in this part of the universe, but you have no right to defy the natural order!" _"Are you done, Eldstar?" _The princess speaks in a calm yet polite tone. _"You know why I am here, you can sense it just as well as I can." _"Yes...The day we wished would never come has arrived...The Dark King has been reborn..." Replies Skolar. _"Yes. If the boy named Alex Whiter does not fulfill his destiny in time and destroy the reborn King, then I will have to interfere and finish him off myself. You noble Star Spirits must be prepared to take any necessary precautions in order to ensure the safety of the people on this world." _"...Very well. From what I understand they shall be departing for the Origin Temple soon. They will have to deal with a few things before they can ascend to the top..." Eldstar closes his eyelids to think. _"It's ok, Elder Star." _The Princess speaks once again. A quick overview of space reveals a sparkly light blue orb flying towards Plit, inside of it is the shadow of an observatory. _"I believe in Mario and his friends, for they have saved the universe and myself twice before..."_

_Next Time: Guardians of a Legacy_


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36: Dawn of Genesis I: The Honor Bound Seven**

_1 hour, 20 minutes remain..._

Later that day, after they had finished listening to Alex's tale and comforted him, the group walked through the sun drenched streets of Toad Town to go to E. Gadd's lab. The trip was, not unsurprisingly, quite uneventful. As they descend down the laboratory's stairs, they see the Professor standing before the active Stargadd, eagerly awaiting the group's arrival. The moment that one of the heroes sets foot on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, The Professor turns his body around to greet them. "Oh ho ho ho, welcome one and all..." He says. After approaching the elderly professor, he gets ready to explain one key bit of information to the group before they head off. "Now, you should know something about the Stargadd before you head off." Folding his little arms behind his back, he begins to pace back and forth as he talks. "This trip you are about to take shall be one-way only...Once you enter, you cannot return."

"And why is that?" Alex asks. "My portal was designed to teleport only a certain amount of people a day...You are just barely exceeding that number in your group, so the moment you all step through the portal the machine will shut down instantly..." "So we should try and get rid of the veil that surrounds the temple while we are in there, correct?" Says Mario in response. E. Gadd slowly nods his head, then turns towards the group and holds his arms out in front of his body. "That would be most wise...In the mean time, I will try and restore the machine's energy as soon as possible so you can return back here after completing your mission." After that, the professor begins to pace back and forth once again, mumbling to himself about ways to break away from the restrictions of time-space travel that plague his machine. With nothing else important to say, Mario politely asks the professor if they can move on. Once the professor chuckles to himself he swiftly removes himself from the heroes path, allowing them to advance towards the swirling mass of energy that will take them to the final temple.

The moment their bodies make contact with the portal, they find themselves hurtling through multiple dimensional planes. Strange sights pass by their eyes, like massively grotesque worms swallowing entire galaxies in one bite, titans made out of cosmic radiation juggling suns in the palm of their hands, and a massive spider walk along a web made out of approximately one million planets. After this complex series of events leaves their line of sight, a massive burst of light engulfs the group, forcing them to shield their eyes to avoid being blinded. They are trapped within the light for a total of ten seconds, though that period seems to last for a much longer time than that. Upon emerging from the light they move their arms and hands away from their faces in an attempt to get a bearing of their surroundings.

Surrounded completely by a grove of palm trees, the heroes are surprised when they take a closer look at them. The trunks alone are as wide as a small house, the height of said trees reach up high into the sky. If one were to try and climb them, they would find that it would take them fifteen minutes of constant climbing to reach the top. If they did reach the top though, they would find a plethora of leaves lying around, acting as a magnificent canopy that blocks any and all sunlight from reaching the ground floor. The trees are placed so close together that it seems as though the heroes are completely trapped inside of this little area. The thick fog that looms in the air does not help at all either, making it harder for them to try and find their way out. As most of the group examines the tree trunks to try and find a crack to slip through, Alpha has one hand laid against the side of his face where his eyepatch is. A small and quiet "Plip!" can be heard coming from his body, after which he takes his hand out in front of his body and points towards the east. "I found a way out of here." He says.

Ending their search, the other heroes gather by Alpha to look at where he points. Sure enough, there is a gap in the trees that is big enough for the whole group to slip through without any bark scrapping against their skin. They then proceed to emerge on the other side of the grove. With curiosity overcoming Driad, he finds himself wanting to ask Alpha a question. "How did you see through the fog anyways?" He asks, placing one of his vines underneath his lips and raising his pupils up towards his forehead. Alpha lets out a small chuckle and promptly taps the side of his head where his eyepatch is, the sound of metal quietly ringing in his head. "There are things in this world that should remain a mystery...But try and put two and two together with that sound you just heard..." With the Commander's cryptic words echoing through his mind, Driad begins to think them over.

The only thing lying between the heroes and the final temple is a single pathway through the forest. The path is divided into seven parts, with each one representing a different temple that they had visited on their journey. Strange things begin to happen though as they start to walk towards the temple. As Driad walks across the first part, which is covered by a multitude of different flowers, he experiences a vision in his mind that shows a single vine wrapping itself around a human's left arm. When Mallow walks over the second part, a small, thin pond of water that ripples as his feet land down upon it, he sees a single human-like foot landing toes first onto a large body of water. The person in question wears a light-blue fish scaled sandal, with arched fins placed on her heel. As Alpha crosses the third part, a single, solid cloud that hovers over a gargantuan pit that leads to the center of the planet, he sees some silver hair swaying to the rhythm of some wind that looms in the room that the man stands in. Gemini crosses the fourth part, a metal plate that has crackling electricity surging beneath it, and sees someone reloading a massive sniper rifle in his hands. Geno crosses the fifth part, a normal, smooth patch of ground, and witnesses a muscular man cracking his knuckles out in front of his chest. Luigi walks over the sixth part, almost slipping on the sheet of ice that covers the ground as he does so. As he walks, he sees a vision of a person gripping their right hand tightly around the handle of an icicle shaped lance. Finally, as Mario walks past the final part of the path with four torches made of bamboo lit on both sides of his body, he sees a vision of a man slowly opening his eyelids, revealing that the eyes are a bright red-orange color underneath. The man turns his head, and sees the heroes slowly approaching the temple's entrance. The flames on the torches are put out instantly, the smoke that remains rising into the skies above before vanishing completely.

After they exit the forest, the group looks around to see what the temple is like. Impressed by it's size, a couple of them theorize that the temple itself could probably pierce the skies above at it's peak. Mario, however, is looking at the top of the temple's entrance, hoping to find the man that he saw in his visions before, only to find that he is no longer there. The plumber quickly assumes that the man probably retreated into a secret passage, but he is not able to think for long, as he hears a strange voice calling to not just him, but the rest of the group as well. "Bienvenido!" Hearing this unfamiliar word, the group turns their focus towards the source of the noise, only to find someone standing in front of the temple doors.

A man that looks to be in his mid-twenties, a human like Alex, stands before them with a welcoming smile on his face. He wears a tattered and burnt robe, whose color is as black as the ashes that remain of the fires on the torches behind the heroes. His feet are covered, but his hands rest on his hips, where one could see a solid amber ring wrapped around his left pinky. The man's hair is spiked, a few curves here and there make it look like a newly lit flame. The color of the hair itself is a crispy dark red, which blends in well his with the man's brown eyebrows. As they look into his eyes, they feel a sense of sincerity within him, and despite his meager looking position he seems to be a good-to-honest man. After speaking to them, the man closes his eyelids and bows before them, lowering his right arm down in front of his chest and placing his left arm onto his back. Despite the man's politeness, the group still has no idea as to what he had said to them earlier, and thus continue to look confused.

Lifting his head up slightly to take a look at their faces, the man sees their confusion and quickly realizes his folly. "Ah, los hablantes de otra lengua ..." He says to himself, an accent in his voice that matches the language he so fluently knows. He lifts his head up and stares into their confused eyes, proceeding to switch to another language in an attempt to get their attention. "Ist das besser?" He says, his accent changing to fit the new words he just now spoke. Still confused, a couple members of the group stare at each other, completely dumbfounded by this man's actions. Everyone is silent for a few seconds, but then the man places his left hand on the back of his and turns it a little to the left, staring down towards the ground and whistling a few tunes to himself. "Wow, harte Masse..." The man decides to try one last language before giving up. Taking a deep breath, the man puffs out his chest and places his right hand on it. "Qu'en est-il?" He says with a particularly romantic accent.

When that fails to get another reaction out of the heroes besides their continuous look of confusion, the man breaths out, releasing all the air that had been stored up in his lungs. Looking disappointed, he takes his hand and rubs the skin on his face downward, letting out a massive sigh of annoyance. "Honestly, English is like the universal language or something...So why bother creating other ones..." He murmurs to himself. Alex leans his head over towards Gemini, and whispers out from the corner of his mouth. "What is with this guy?" He asks. "Probably an illusion created by the temple in order to dissuade us from entering...Either way, he doesn't look right in the head at all." Overhearing the two heroes' talk, the man swiftly turns his head to glare at them, his eyes bulging right out of his sockets and a frenzied scowl on his face. "Hey! It's not nice to backtalk others behind their backs, especially to real people who have FEELINGS!"

With the man's sudden exclamation, the two heroes jerk their heads back in surprise, and quickly bow their heads to apologize for their rash judgments. The man is quick to forgive the two, his face reverting back to a more composed state as he waves his hand out in front of his body. "It's not a problem you two, I understand how you may have come to that conclusion..." As he has his hand raised, Alex catches a brief glimpse of what appears to be a piece of metal that surrounds his arm. He doesn't have much time to think about it though, as the man notices where Alex line of sight is focused at, and without reacting abnormally he promptly lays his arm down next to his hip again. "So, I'm guessing you have collected all seven stones, right?" He asks, trying to change the subject before the young boy questions him.

"Yes...And just who are you?" Mario asks. "Ah yes, forgive me for my improper manners..." He rests his right hand onto his chest. "I am Darwin Serenta...I once tried to gain the Overlord's power for myself, but instead I found my journey to be a failure...That was one thousand years ago..." This was more than enough to blow Alpha's mind. Actually, it was enough to surprise pretty much the entire group. The man barely looked a day over 25, and yet he claims that he took journeyed to this temple one thousand years ago? There was something that the heroes had to ask the man before they believe his story. "Ok, so why have you never aged since that day?" Geno asks. "Ah! A question that I can provide an easy yet enlightening answer to you before you choose to enter the temple..."

"You see, the temple is guarded by seven highly trained warriors. They each bear a title based on the element that they control...And are all equally powerful. I lost to the last one...A charming fire samurai that goes by the name of Zeno Blaze, and was cursed to wander these woods for all eternity...Or until the day the Overlord is revived." He then turns his attention towards Alex, while Gemini feels sorry for Darwin, having to be alone in these woods for an entire millennium sounds like it would be completely unbearable...Yet this man looks as though he has still retained his sanity despite this fact. "So, I'm guessing that young boy is the chosen one, right?" With his mind focused on Darwin's story, he almost did not hear what he just said. "Huh? Oh, I am the one, yes..." Darwin is overcome with an intense feeling of nostalgia, as a massive grin appears on his face. "You remind me of someone I once knew in my more...youthful days." Darwin stays silent for a few seconds, and begins to walk away from the temple, heading towards the forest in the south. He holds his left arm out, waving his hand at the group before he reaches the trees. "I wish you the best of luck. May we see each other again soon..." His body vanishes completely soon after, leaving the heroes to think about his words carefully. "So...We'll have to defeat seven warriors when we go inside, huh?" Asks Gemini. "Sounds like it..." Geno responds. "We have no choice in the matter now. It's either do or die, for we can't leave until we find a way to remove the barrier that surrounds this temple..." Says Alpha. Everyone nods their head in unison, completely determined to accomplish their goal of reviving the Overlord. They begin to advance towards the front door of the temple, which has been opened to allow the group entrance inside of it. As they enter, a massive stone slab slams down from the roof of the door, trapping them inside with no way of escape...

Deep inside the temple, seven warriors have gathered in the shadows. Due to the thick darkness, it is impossible to tell what any of them look like. One of them steps forward to talk to the rest. "The day has come my brethren..." Says one man in a wise and respectful tone. "The Overlord will be reborn here and now, and we will carve out a new path, following him to the ends of the earth...No matter what the cost." "..." One of the warriors is silent. "What is it?" The man asks. "Shall we do nothing about the witch that has infiltrated our most sacred of lands?" Says a woman in a cold tone. "You know why we cannot do that...We gave the Overlord our word, that we would not touch anyone unless they enter our rooms..." The woman returns to being silent. "And what of the seven others that follow the boy?" A man with a high-pitched voice speaks out. "We are to test them...Not kill them, understand?" The wise man states. In the shadows, the outline of the warriors' heads nod in agreement. "Good...They have already entered the temple. You all know which rooms you need to get to..."

Before they leave, they raise their weapons into the air, and chant something in unison. **"We obey his will, the weapons he shall choose to yield! When the time is right for us to fight, it shall be by our hand that evil be sealed!"** With those words spoken out loud, they lower their weapons and depart from this very room...

_34 minutes remain..._

_Next Time: Driad's Desperate Hour_


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37: Dawn of Genesis II: The Eager Rose**

_30 minutes remain..._

As soon as the entrance was sealed tightly by the stone slab, Geno turned himself around and went over to examine it, tapping it a few times with his knuckles just to feel how solid the rock is. "Yep..." He says quietly. "Is it that bad?" Mallow asks. "Not exactly..." Geno turns around and with his arms folded in front of his chest he begins to walk back to the group. "We would probably be able to break through the stone itself, but I sensed a sort of...Strange magic embedded in the rock. It kind of reminded me of the magic that radiates from the Element Stones whenever they are used." As the doll closes his eyelids to think these developments over in his head, Gemini turns his head around to, looking at a stairway that lies at the very end of the dark, empty hallway. "So I guess we won't ever be able to leave until the mission is completed..." He says, clenching his right fist in preparation for battle.

"Looks like it..." Geno responds. Accepting their fate, the heroes trek across the barren stone tiles that mark the ground, making their way to the nearby staircase in order to advance to the next floor. As they trek up each individual step, Gemini and Driad discuss some things quietly with each other. A conversation that Alex manages to notice happening from the corner of his eye. "Wonder what they are discussing?" He thinks to himself, his head tilted to get a better look at the two of them. Blinking his eyelids a few times, Alex merely sighs and turns his head back around, deciding that he doesn't need to butt in on their conversation. As they reach the halfway point, the doorway behind them is sealed off by a multitude of vines that sprout from the ground and thrust themselves into the rocks above.

A couple moments later, the heroes reach the very top of the stairs. They are greeted by the sight of an expansive and bountiful garden landscape. Vines extend and twirl along the floor, a few of them having a neatly placed pink chrysanthemums on their thorns to make them stand out from the rest. There is a plentiful variety of flowers and bushes that are attached to the walls. These include Hazlenut and Summernuts as far as shrubs go, and some Forget-me-nots and Ursinias as far as flowers go. Actually, the four kinds of plants mentioned here are but a small fraction of the amount that can be seen on the walls. At the very end of the room, there are four giant flowers hanging in the air that act as a sort of wall to keep anyone from advancing. From the upper-left corner to the bottom-left corner, going in a clockwise direction, the flowers are as follow: A blue Morning Glory, a Hibiscus, a Sunflower, and finally a yellow Viola. The group is barely able to take the time to take in the beauty of the nature around them when the wall of flowers begins to split at the center, and they slowly start retreating into the four corners of the back end of the room at a snail's pace.

As the flowers are drawn back, someone can be seen standing behind the massive petals that are attached to them. A pale-skinned girl who looks to be in her mid-teens stands before the group. Her feet are covered up by a couple of stretched out red rose petals. Her toes stick out from the end, the nails painted a lovely shade of purple. The petals are able to stay on her foot due to some brown roots that wrap themselves tightly around it, extending from the sides of two small, thin oval-shaped pieces of wood that lie comfortably under her feet. Her thin legs are bare, something that can be seen past the cracks in her crisp red and yellow philodendron leaf miniskirt. She wears a really short pair of green leather shorts underneath her miniskirt, obviously as a way to ensure that no perverts see her privates as she fights. A patch of moss covers her completely flat chest and wraps around her to her back, where the two ends are linked together by three roots that are wrapped in a circle. Two poison ivy wreaths are wrapped around her body on the top and bottom of her moss bikini, parts of the top one resting neatly underneath her armpits. Nothing is covering up her belly area, her firm midriff being bare for all to see. There are two vines wrapped around both of her arms, fitting loosely to avoid constricting her blood vessels. The vines themselves almost seem to be alive, as they can be seen slowly moving around her arms as she stands. She has a wide grin on her face, which on top of her wide open light-green eyes, allows her to project a feeling of innocence upon the bewildered heroes. Two small roots are wrapped around the sides of her short light-green hair, separating the two golden-brown sections of hair that are shaped like a pair of normal leaves and rest behind her ears, rubbing closely against their skin.

There are a few seconds of silence, as the group wonders why this little girl is standing before them. "She couldn't be the first warrior we have to fight...Could she?" Driad whispers. "There's no one else around..." Alex notes, rubbing his chin and letting out a heavy sigh. "I really don't want to fight a girl..." As the heroes continue to talk to each other about how to approach this situation, the girl becomes increasingly impatient, her cheeks puffing up with one hand placed against her hip, and she begins to tap her foot on the ground. "Not only is it rude to keep a lady waiting, but they are underestimating me just because of my appearance?" Whispers the girl in an elegant yet surprisingly deep voice when you consider how young she looks. "Hello!" She exclaims. Upon hearing the thunderous sounds of her voice, the group immediately stops talking and focus their attention onto her. Satisfied with the results, the girl's expression reverts back to a blank slate, and she takes a few steps forward, getting closer to the group so she doesn't have to yell once again in order for them to hear her.

"You have entered the divine temple, the definitive apex of the Overlord's legacy. This is where we have waited the years out in hopes that someday, the one chosen by our master's will would enter these sacred lands, and from his reborn, divine hand would the evil beings of this world be scorched into nothingness..." The girl looks towards Alex, a brief but pleasant grin appearing on her face. "This place is the beginning, of not only our duty, but also of the universe's destiny...As such, we have named this place 'N源' (Origin) " "The Origin Temple? A fitting name from the sounds of your description, m'lady." Alpha says in a praising tone. The girl places the side of her right hand underneath her lips and grins once again. "I thank you for your manners, little creature, but praising your opponent does not mean that you will escape this battle." "I had no intention of trying to escape..." The sound of a few gears turning go off in Alpha's left arm, as he twists it around in the air, prepping himself for battle. "So let us begin, shall we?" The girl's response is to put one hand up in the air to stop the heroes from going any further.

"No." Is all she says. "No? But aren't you-" "If you silence yourself for a few moments, I will go over a few important details." After interrupting Alex and saying what she needed to, the girl lowers her hand down to the side of her body. "As you stand in this temple, you will fight by our terms, OUR code of honor." The girl kneels down and cups her hand around one of the flowers that are growing on the vine, plucking it gently and lifting it up into the air. "We do not need to needlessly shed any blood here, if we allowed all eight of you to fight each of us warriors at the same time, then you would win effortlessly. We believe in proving one's individual strength, and as such we have chosen an honorable format to our battles." She then places the flower onto the left side of her hair, where it ends up staying in place once she moves her hand away. "Decide, heroes of this world, the person in your group who shall face me in combat."

After her words are spoken, the heroes huddle up into a group and begin weighing their options. "Who should fight this girl?" Gemini whispers. "We can already assume that this girl controls plants...If anything, Mario's fire based moves would be best suited for dealing with her." As Alpha whispers this, the girl interrupts them once again. "I also should mention, that to avoid the risk of interference, the remaining members of the group shall be allowed to move on to the next room, leaving the single chosen warrior behind to fight alone." Upon hearing this, Alpha lets out a quiet, annoyed sigh. "Well, forget that then..." He says. "How come?" Asks Mallow. "Mario is one of our strongest fighters, we can't have him possibly fighting against the weakest of the warriors..." "I agree." Says Mario in response to the Commander's reasoning. "Then who will fight her?" Gemini asks again. "I will." The group turns their heads to look at Driad, whose head is turned to look the girl straight in the eyes.

"Are you certain about this Driad?" Alex asks. Not even looking the boy straight in the eyes, the Crayzee Dayzee nods his head in response. He then departs from where the rest of the group stand, and stands before the girl while forming a leaf sword on his right arm. "I will be your opponent." He says with confidence. "The outside guardian of the Nature Castle, eh?" The girl lifts one hand up to her face and brushes some dangling hairs away from her eyes, then takes that same hand and uses it to snap her fingers. Emerging from the ground behind her are a few vines that holds a stone massive stone platform up in the air. "There is your ride to the next room, remaining heroes. From here on out you shall fight my six remaining brothers...I wish you all the best of luck." As the heroes walk past Driad, only Alex turns his head around to look concerned for the flower's safety. "Don't worry about it Alex." The boy jerks his head back around in an instant to see Gemini walking with his hands held behind his head. "Huh?" The boy asks in a puzzled manner. "I've seen what he is truly capable of...He's got this." Once everyone's feet touch down onto the platform, the girl snaps her fingers once again and in an instant the vines raise the platform into the air, sending the heroes through a hole in the ceiling so they end up on the next floor.

"Now then..." The girl raises her hand up to her head and taps the center of the chrysanthemum with one finger, and suddenly a bright yellow flash radiates from the flower. She then pushes her hand through the flash, reaching into a pocket dimension that exists beyond it and grasping onto something inside. As she starts to pull her hand out from within the dimension, Driad notices that her hand is grasped around a metallic handle. The handle itself is connected to the bottom of a blue glass rose, and extending from it is a seven-segment whip with spikes on each side of it and a wool rope that connects them all together. The girl brandishes it out to the side of her body, lashing the weapon down towards the direction of the ground, though it does not end up touching the vines on the ground when she does this. "I see the beauty in every plant I touch, but it does not mean that I am oblivious to the hidden dangers within each one..." The whip retracts to it's normal form, the sound of each metallic piece clashing echoes throughout the room. The girl then flips the whip around so it is placed behind her stomach and holds her other arm out in front of her chest. Squinting her eyes and getting a scowl on her face, she looks completely serious as she prepares for battle with Driad. "I am Acia Rose. As I bloom in the morning, and wilt in the night, the one thing that never vanishes is my will to fight! Now, come at me Driad of the Nature Castle, and show me just why you have lasted the longest out of all your brethren!"

The Crayzee Dayzee bravely runs at Acia, but the girl simply waves her arm at the ground. A wall of small vines emerges from the ground to act as a shield, but Driad jumps into the air and with a quick flick of the wrist he cuts the vines in half with his leaf blade. To his surprise though, his attack fails to connect with Acia's body. Instead, the girl thought ahead of time and bent down and to the left, using her strength to direct her whip around to attack Driad. With his quick reflexes, the flower ducks his head to avoid making contact with the whip, the only damage suffered is from the tip of one of the spikes lightly scraping the back of his head. Predicting this too, Acia, with a flick of a finger, causes a single vine to be raised from the ground behind Driad without him knowing about it. The vine wraps itself around the top segment of the whip and begins to drag itself along the ground, carrying the whip with it as it moves. Once the Crayzee Dayzee lands on the ground he lifts his head back up, only to hear the sound of something moving through the dirt that rests below the vines. His attempt to turn around to see what is going on is met with the metallic spikes on the whip ramming right into his face.

Acia stands up and dispels the vine wall she had summoned earlier into the ground with just a thought, plucks a leaf from the wreath on her chest and turns herself around so her body is facing the wall to the left of where she currently stands. When Driad passes by, having been launched from the whip due to it being unable to go past her body, the girl slaps the leaf onto the back of his head, and watches as the living flower is sent flying into the wall in the back of the room. With the rocks indented into Driad's body, he falls onto the vines below face first. Luckily enough, he just manages to avoid landing on the thorns that are attached to them. Lifting his head up off the ground, the Crayzee Dayzee tries to then move his arms in order to push himself back up, but they remain motionless, refusing to obey the commands that his brain is sending to them. "What?" Is what he thinks to himself, a look of surprise smeared across his face. He has barely any time to assess the situation though, for Acia has already retracted her whip and chosen to hold it vertically behind her back, ready to strike again.

When Acia moves her arm to execute her attack, Driad quickly realizes that his legs are still functional, and uses them to roll his body off to the left in order to dodge the incoming whip. Before the cold metal of the whip makes contact with the vines, Acia stops it from moving any further. Discarding the serious expression that was once on her face, it seems as though she feels a bit of remorse for what she was about to do. She places her arm by her hip and with a flick of the wrist her whip retracts back into place. She then places her weapon out in front of her body and clasps both of her hands together so the weapon's handle is stuck between her palms. Raising the weapon into the air, Acia begins to chant a prayer of sorts. While this is happening, Driad decides to take advantage of these few brief moments in order to figure out why his arms aren't responding to his commands. "Think Driad, why would the nerves in your arms suddenly be unable to work?" In a moment of realization, Driad remembers his opponent slapping him in the back of his head when he was sent flying earlier. "Could it be that whatever she placed on me tampered with my brain and shut down my arms?"

Driad closes his eyes and begins to think to himself. He tries to focus on his head, doing all in his power to find a possible source to his problems. It takes a few seconds, but he is able to detect the leaf that Acia placed on him. "Hmmm, not bad...She placed a paralyzing agent on a poison ivy leaf, which has completely overwritten the poison aspect of the poison ivy itself...However, she didn't put a very strong dosage on here...If I just wait a few more seconds..." With a little patience, the leaf detaches itself from the Crayzee Dayzee's head and slowly begins to turn to dust. With nothing holding him back anymore, he tries once again to get his arms moving. The tips of his vines wiggle around slightly when he sends a command to them. "Perfect..." With the strength in his arms restored, Driad pushes both of his hands against the ground to lift himself up off the ground. Back on his legs, the flower brushes a bit of dirt off of his legs and then quickly reforms his leaf sword in his right hand the moment Acia finishes her prayer. The girl grabs hold of her whip with one hand once again and places her other arm off to the side of her body. "Forgive me, I had forgotten to deliver a prayer to mother nature...She will forgive me if I accidentally harm the plants from this point onward..."

Acia releases her grip on her whip and uses her pointer finger to catch it by the handle and twirl it around in the air. She grabs hold of it once again so it's now held out horizontally from the side of her body, then lifts her arm up until her hand is level with her head. The chrysanthemum glows once again, and she places her whip back into her pocket dimension for later use. After pulling her hand back out, Driad notices that she has pulled three ball-shaped seeds out from within the dimension, each one currently stuck between her fingers. The seeds are all a different color. From left to right they are brown, purple, and gold respectively. "You seem to be perceptive enough, seeing as you managed to survive after I paralyzed your arms...I won't take the risk of you using my own whip against me, so you will now see a taste of my true power."

Flinging the seeds up into the air, gravity takes effect and causes them to fall in three different directions. Two fall off to the side, and one falls down in front of her. They then land into the dirt that lies beneath the roots, causing Driad to get a look on confusion on his face. "...You know, I don't have all day, I'm not going to wait for your seeds to grow." He says sarcastically. With a smug look on her face, Acia closes her eyes and lifts her open hand into the air while preparing her fingers for something. "Time...Is non-existent for us in here..." A loud "Snap!" fills the air as soon as Acia flicks her fingers together, followed soon after by the sounds of the ground rumbling beneath their feet. The Crayzee Dayzee wonders just what the source of this trembling could be. He receives the answer to his question soon enough though, as three giant venus flytrap heads emerge from the ground, the force of their emergence ripping apart the vines that concealed their seeds as they do so. As expected, the venus flytraps are of the same colors as the seeds that were planted in the ground. Their grotesque faces drip puddles of drool from behind their teeth, their bodies lusting for flesh. Instead all they find standing before them is Driad, which promptly causes them to "look" disappointed, and you can hear a feint whimpering sound coming from their bodies.

"It's ok my dear plants, he may look like a flower, but he is a bit...Unique on the inside. He is still quite edible, so go at him." With Acia's reassuring words, the plants lift their heads up in joy and turn to look at Driad. Distracted by the ridiculousness of the flytraps' behavior, the living flower isn't really focused on the battle at hand until the flytraps begin to tread through the ground in an attempt to reach and devour him whole. Upon seeing this, the Crayzee Dayzee quickly snaps back into action, lunging his sword into the belly of the black flytrap and cutting the stem in half. Due to the force of it's movement, the plants' head flies over Driad's body and lands softly on the ground below, where is begins to shrivel away into nothingness. While he takes his time to deal with the first plant, Acia appears behind him and slaps another "poison ivy" leaf onto the back of his head. Disappearing just as quickly as she appeared, Driad turns around in an attempt to slash Acia, but instead finds the brown flytrap heading his way. Not phased by this development, Driad thrusts his sword forward, only to find that despite it being lunged into the plant's belly, it is still moving towards him. Confused by what just occurred, he is caught off-guard when he sees the beast lowering his head with it's mouth open, the lower part of it's jaw phasing right through his sword.

"I see what is going on here..." Before he is devoured, Driad does a 180 degree turn around and slashes the plant's head in half horizontally, both halves of the mouth landing on the ground and proceeding to wilt away like the last plant did. "She planted a leaf on me that made it so I would see what is behind me..." He continues to think to himself, up until the point where Acia appears behind him and slaps another leaf onto his head. Driad is quicker to react this time, but only manages to lightly nick her on her left shoulder before she vanishes away. "Darn it..." As his feet land on the ground after the recoil from his attack, something seems up. He doesn't hear any noises coming around, which is strange due to the fact that with one plant remaining he should be able to hear it digging through the dirt. "Great, she disabled my hearing too?" Luckily for him, he is able to catch the last plant charging towards him from the corner of his eye. Though he sees it coming from the left, he knows that it is actually approaching him from the right. A quick turn to the right and an even quicker slash of his sword cuts the final flytrap down to size.

Driad steadies himself, waiting for Acia to strike once again. After a couple tense seconds, the lady warrior appears behind him once again, emerging from a puff of pink rose petals with another leaf prepared in her hands. "Not this time!" Driad exclaims. A quick turn around allows him to use the broad part of his sword in order to block Acia in mid-air. This is just what she wanted though, as she quickly places the leaf she is holding onto the tip of his sword. Winking her left eye innocently after doing this, she then backfips over Driad's body. Confused by the girl's action, Driad is suddenly surprised when his sword's weight seems to increase tenfold almost instantly. Unable to keep it suspended in the air for much longer, the Crayzee Dayzee watches hopelessly as the sword falls heavily onto the ground below. He tries to use his other arm to help lift it up off the ground, but this action leaves him completely defenseless against Acia's next attack. With gravity beginning to take hold, the lady warrior stops flipping through the air and extends her left leg out, smashing the heel of her foot down on top of Driad's head with a great amount of strength put into it.

The flower's eyes widen in pain, and after staggering for a few seconds he falls face first into the ground, his arms stretched out before him and his sword still weighed down by Acia's magic leaf. After this attack, the lady lands gracefully on the ground, gently brushing some sweat away from her left cheek as she does so. "I guess you weren't much after all..." She says to herself, a displeased tone showing how she felt about Driad's performance. "As punishment, you shall be cur-" Acia stops herself from carrying out the curse. Not because she feels pity for Driad, but because she senses an eerie presence in the air around her, the feeling similar to that of bloodlust. "What is this?" She asks, a cold sweat forming on her forehead that trickles down her face. "Mother nature herself is...Crying out to me, as if she was in pain...I felt this feeling two days ago as well, could it be?"

Acia takes a few cautious steps backwards, watching as Driad's body begins to transform right before her eyes. His leaf sword turns back into a normal vine, and wooden claws begin to form from the tips of both that arm and his other one. The leaf that was placed on his sword is forced off as the claws extend, which in turn causes it to turn to dust and disappear. His legs become longer and more bulky in appear, beginning to resemble that of those you would see on a feral beast. A moss bush forms around his arms, and an even bigger ones grows from the back of his head down to where his tail is currently growing from. As the transformation finishes up, his eyes become more beast-like in appearance, and a wolf's snout grows out from the center of his face, along with a jaw that has it's menacing fangs shown for all to see. Driad lifts himself up off the ground with his newly formed paws, and uses his legs to keep himself supported on the ground. The leaves' magic have worn off, and he is PISSED.

"That stuff you used on me? I hope you don't plan on using them ever again..." He says in a deep, gruff voice. He slowly turns his head to the left to look at the fear-stricken Acia, and holds his right claw out above his head. "Let us end this..." Backed into a corner, the lady warrior realizes that she can't hold back anymore. If she gives in for even one second, then Driad will probably kill her. "For my honor..." Acia reaches into her flower dimension and pulls her whip out once again, lashing it down against the ground below, her eyes burning with a courageous passion and her mind focused completely on the battle that lies before her. "I will not yield!" She then uses her strength to lift the whip off the ground, the metallic tip of it crashing into the ceiling above and breaking through the rocks that make up it's surface. As she thrusts her arm in Driad's direction, the whip tears through parts of the ceiling, leaving a massive scar in it's wake. As it comes down, the floral wolf does a 180 and stops it in it's tracks by holding both of his paws out on front of his body. The metal hits his palms, the force of it's impact causing Driad to be dragged through the ground a few feet.

"HRAAAAH!" Driad exclaims, grasping his hands around the end of the whip. Acia gets a surprised look on her face, for she knows what will happen next. The floral wolf, despite feeling the pain of the spikes pierced into his "skin", manages to use all of his strength to pull Acia towards his body. A quick swing and a release of his grip sends the girl flying towards the same that wall that Driad was sent flying into earlier. Unlike him though, Acia is sent flying right THROUGH the wall, a massive hole being formed due to her impact. As a few bricks continue to crumble off of the wall, the wolf takes a few moments to catch his breath, his mouth panting slowly yet heavily. "That took more strength than I thought it would...That whip...weighs more than the one wielding it..."

It doesn't take long for Acia to recover, as her hand grasps onto what remains of the wall and she begins to pull herself out, Driad notices that parts of her clothing have become torn, cuts and bruises have appeared on both her arms and legs, and her root braids have become undone, her golden hair now flowing down past her shoulders and ending right by her hips. She still wields the whip in her right hand, but you can tell that her body cannot continue for much longer. Not willing to stand down, she uses her remaining strength to leap through the air so she is now halfway between Driad and the wall, then holds her whip out diagonally in front of her body. At this point each segment of the whip begins to disintegrate. Instead of turning to dust though, the fragments become glowing red petals that fly into the air and loom throughout the room. After all seven segments vanish, the room is illuminated with a red hue, and Acia shifts the whip's handle so the rose is now pointed at Driad, who is currently mesmerized by the floating petals.

"This is my last attack...A combination of both the beauty of the rose, and the ferocity of nature as a whole..." The rose petals all converge at the center of the glass rose, fusing together to create a small glowing green orb of energy. As the light fades away, Driad quickly remembers that he is still in the middle of a battle, and as he jerks his head forward his eyes bulge out when he realizes that he doesn't have enough time to get out of the way. "Radiant Gaia!" She exclaims. In the moments before the beam fires, Driad decides that his only option is to tank the beam and hope he can live through it in order to deliver the final strike. He holds his claws out in front of his face, the back of them being used as his shield. A massive green energy ray is fired from the energy sphere, glowing red streams of energy spinning around it and the center of the beam being yellow in color. It is big enough for the top of it to scrape across the ceiling and for the bottom to cut through the ground below. All the vines that are in the way, along with any dirt or rocks, none of it survives the beam's destructive rampage. A magical barrier near the staircase though prevents the beam from causing more damage to the temple itself, thankfully.

In fact, upon contact with the barrier, an explosion goes off, which in turn creates a massive cloud of dust that flies through the room and covers everything in it's wake. It is impossible to tell just what has happened to both Acia and Driad at first. Then as the dust starts to settle, a low-pitched growl can be heard, followed by the sound of the girl's piercing scream. When the dust vanishes completely, Driad is standing behind Acia, multiple slash marks now seen on her arms and legs. With no more energy remaining and her final attack failing to secure her victory, the lady warrior is forced on her knees, blood starting to leak from the sides of her mouth. Something is bothering her though. Not the fact that she lost, she accepts that fact; however... "How...did you survive...that last attack...at close range?" She asks, barely able to speak as she breaths slowly and heavily. A look at Driad's face reveals that he is breathing heavily as well. "Who...said...I survived?" He says weakly. The moss on his arms have been burned off, his claws turned to dust, and his chest almost burned away to the point that you can see a layer of skin bulging back and forth repeatedly. "Your attack...Did more damage to me than I thought...I...Barely was able to pull off that last attack of mine..."

With his minimal energy levels, Driad slowly reverts back to his original form. Acia drops her whip, which rolls off of her right leg and lands on the ground. She then bends forward and places both of her arms down onto the devastated ground below, grasping some dirt into her hands as tears form in her eyelids. "I have failed my lord...I failed mother nature...Your wolf form reeked of bloodlust...yet you didn't kill me..." The tears drip down onto the dirt that is held between her fingers. "I...have a friend of mine...to thank for that..." Driad says, and since he is now completely back to normal his body starts to regenerate any "skin" that he lost due to Acia's attack. "He...helped me learn...how to control...my anger...And-" "Kill me now." Acia says tearfully. "What?" Driad says in a puzzled tone. "I don't deserve to live anymore...There is no way for us to heal ourselves in this temple...So any damage we suffer...is permanent...It would just be better for my life to end now...instead of slowly bleeding...to death..." As she talked, Driad cautiously approached her from behind. He takes his right arm and wraps it around her waist. Then he lifts her up, placing her on his shoulder to carry her. This action greatly confuses Acia, who turns her tear dripped face towards Driad and quivers her lips.

"Y-y-you idiot! I lost...my honor crushed, I have disgraced my brothers...Why won't you obey my wishes and let me die in peace?" She tearfully yells out. "You...still have something to live for..." Driad responds. "You...were loyal to the Elemental Overlord til the day he left this world...weren't you?" Calming herself down, Acia closes her eyelids and turns her head back, her cheeks turning red out of embarrassment. "...I was." Is all she can bring herself to say. "Then don't give up on life yet...Today the Overlord will be reincarnated...Don't you want to live...to serve him once again?" They are both silent for a few seconds, Acia taking a moment to reminisce about the days she spent with her former lord, the memories of which motivate her to be able to come up with a response to Driad's question afterwards. "...I do..." "We are both...the last remnants of a bygone era...Until we find something...worth dying for in his name...Let us try to..." Driad begins to cough loudly, a process that lasts about ten seconds before he stops. "You should stop talking Driad." Acia replies. "Yes...You are right..." He says back. "...The wall you sent me through...Behind it is a stairway that leads to the chamber before the shrine...where our lord's remnants of power reside...We should take it...In order to witness his rebirth..." "Ok..." Driad nods his head, then turns around, and with Acia on his shoulder he begins to walk towards the hole in the wall, eager to join up with the rest of the group and finish the journey once and for all...

_Next Time: Tides of the Eternal Memory_


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38: Dawn of Genesis III: Splitting of the Wild Waters**

_24 minutes remain..._

Leaving Driad to fight his battle with the mysterious plant covered girl, the rest of the group is currently riding a stone platform up through a hole in the ceiling to head to the next floor. While they wait patiently for their arrival, Luigi begins to worry about his comrade. "Umm...Anyone else kinda worried that Driad might not win?" He asks with a nervous tone in his voice while taking his left hand and rubbing the back of his head with it. Alpha is busy examining the walls of the passage as they continue to ascend, obviously not paying attention to what Luigi is saying. Gemini has both of his arms folded behind his head and while his eyes are closed he starts whistling quietly to himself. The rest of the group is trying their hardest not to look concerned, but their faces are not fooling Luigi for even a second.

"No one? Not even a little bit?" The man in green moves his head back and forth from left to right, looking and hoping for someone to answer his question, but no one responds. "Luigi." Gemini stops his whistling and speaks out to the distraught plumber. Luigi looks at the Koopa, who has slightly opened his eyelids in order to look at him. "We are all worried about Driad, even those of us that don't show signs of feeling that way." As he says the last part of his sentence, he turns his head towards Alpha, who merely scoffs at the comment and continues to look at the walls. "Besides, this was Driad's plan from the start." Gemini moves his arms away from the back of his head and walks out towards the center of the platform, Luigi looking at him with a puzzled expression on his face. "What are you talking about Gemini?" He asks.

"It goes something like this Luigi..." Gemini begins to talk about his little training session with Driad last night.

_We find both Gemini and Driad standing by themselves deep inside the Osagi Woods. Gemini is in his demon state, breathing heavily with the prongs of his trident stuck in the ground while his right hand is grasped loosely around the top of the staff. Driad is in his wolf form, his body resting close to the ground with both of his claws laid out in front of his head. Like his friend, he too is breathing heavily, though it seems as though he has suffered battle wounds, which Gemini's body is currently lacking. "Not bad...You forced me to go into this state in order to keep up with your speed..." Gemini says. Driad reverts back to his normal form, the light from the moon peeking through the leaves and shining down on his battered body. _

_As the flower opens his eyes up slowly, he lifts his head up to look at Gemini, at the same time he begins to rise up from the ground by pushing his hands against the ground. After he is back on his own two feet, Gemini reverts back to his normal state and puts his trident back into his shell. Noticing that Driad seems rather sad, the Koopa walks over to him and decides to find out what's on his mind. "Something the matter?" Driad turns his head to look at the ground, letting out a heavy sigh in the process. "Well, I'm glad that I've gotten a better grasp of my powers, but..." A small breeze passes through the trees, lightly ruffling the petals that surround Driad's face. "I don't think it will be enough at this point."_

_"Huh? What are you talking about Driad?" Gemini asks. "I thank you for training me, but let us face reality here. Besides Alex and possibly Mallow, I'm the weakest member in the group. Mario and Luigi have had more experience, Geno is blessed by the Star Spirits, you got your demon state, and Alpha is pretty much prepared for anything..." Gemini, who is not understanding what Driad is getting out, only has one thing to say to the flower. "So? Just because you think you are the weakest in our group doesn't mean you are useless." "You may have a point there Gemini..." Driad responds, turning his head back so he can look the Koopa straight in the eyes. "Maybe it would be best for you to talk this stuff over with the rest of the group..." He replies._

_"No, I have to deal with this myself. Telling the group now would just weigh their souls down and make it harder for them to concentrate on the fights that we may have to go through in the final temple..." "...I see what you are getting at. So what are you going to do?" Gemini asks, closing his eyes as he speaks the first part of his sentence. "I want you to do this for me Gemini..." Driad says._

"If I have to fight, and someone worries about me afterwards, I want you to tell them all about what went down tonight, INCLUDING the existence of my wolf form. Oh, and one more thing..." Gemini turns his head towards where Alex is standing. "Tell Alex that I hope he does a good job as the Overlord's reincarnation." After hearing this comment, Alex slams his fist into the wall behind him in anger. "That idiot! He thought that now would be the best time to let us know about this? And what was that last comment all about anyways? Does he think that he will die here or something?" "Now now Alex, calm down and think about this for a moment." Alpha says. "Alpha is right" Geno says soon after. "Put yourself in Driad's shoes. You lived for two-thousand years, half of that life was spent living peacefully in the forest without a care in the world...Then in the span of five days you find out that most of your life is a lie, and that you used to be a beast that murdered any creature that got close to a temple that belonged to someone who entrusted his legacy to you...Not only that, but when you do remember the entire truth about your life the first thing you do is cause the boy that's supposed to gain the powers of your creator to fear you. So not only is guilt weighing him down, he is also conflicted by not only the peaceful memories that he had in the forest, but also those of his more violent past. It may not be obvious to you Alex, but the boy's mind is a train-wreck right now. He is fighting right now though, and despite any mental issues he may be having, he is not going to back down."

"Well said Geno." Gemini claps his hands, finding the herald's choice of words to be both inspirational and wise. "So really Alex, don't worry about it. Besides, Driad is full of it anyways. He's much stronger than he gives himself credit for. I'd even say he could match me in my demon state at his strongest. The problems that plague his mind is something that only he can deal with, but once he does that I'm certain he will be able to beat anyone that crosses his path." "Really?" Alex asks. "I'm positive of it." The Koopa turns his head to look at Geno, his eyes filled with suspicion. "I guess the Star Spirits told him about what went down at the Frozen Palace while he was trapped in the ice…" He thinks his theory to himself, turning his head once again to look at Alex, who is staring at the ground with a depressed look on his face. "It seems as though he is too busy thinking about Driad to have even noticed that though…"

Finally, the lift reaches it's destination. Upon rising out of the hole, the group finds themselves standing before a massive body of water. There is a passage on the other side of the room that leads to the next floor. As for the area itself, there are four other platforms floating by themselves in the room. One on both the left and right sides of the room are made out of four timber logs tied together by rope with bits of moss growing on the bottom of it. The one in front of the passage is made out of the same materials as the platform the group is currently standing on. The platform that rests on the water near the center of the room is made out of marble, a solid block of marble…Which is floating on the water.

"How does that even begin to make sense?" Is all Mallow has to say as he stares at the marble platform with a blank look of confusion on his face. "I hollowed out the marble and filled it with kelp so it would stay afloat." "Wait a second, that also makes no sen-" The cloud Prince lifts his head up and is surprised to find a person standing on the marble platform. A girl, roughly the same age as the previous warrior, has short, sky-blue hair and light purple eyes. Her ears are pierced with two red coral earrings. Around her neck, there is a large pearl necklace that is just long enough to finish with a single pearl between her breasts. An oyster-shell bikini covers these breasts up. Connected to the bikini is a rainbow scaled cloth that is wrapped around her mid-region, with a small oval cut into the back part of it. Connected to her hips are two big aqua colored fins that reach down to her knees. A shell enforced plate covers the front and back part of her waist area, though an undergarment made out of seaweed can be seen behind the front plate. A teal ring with a small purple urchin on it can be seen on her right ring finger, and her nails are painted a dark shade of blue. On her feet she wears two light-blue fish scaled sandals, with arched fins placed on her heels. Both her arms and legs are the average size for a woman her age, though her arms do seem to show a little muscle on them. Resting behind one of the fins on her hip is a small golden rod, possibly her weapon from the looks of things. She looks out innocently at the group, a small chuckle emerging from her mouth.

Placing her right hand on the tip of the rod, she pulls it out from the ring that keeps it suspended at her side and holds it out towards the water. With a flick of the wrist another marble platform rises out of the water, which she then hops over to after putting the rod away. Gracefully bowing her head out to her guests, she takes a quick look at Mallow and lets out another giggle, her face turning a light shade red. After that she raises her head up and places one hand on her hip. "So, I'm guessing you already left one of your friends behind to fight my sister Acia, huh?" The girl says in an innocent, bubbly tone. "Well, at least this girl sounds her age..." Alex thinks to himself. "Yes, we did. Wait...Why are we finding out that girl's name now? Considering how courteous you guys act towards us, you think you'd tell us your names as a way to introduce yourselves..." As soon as Alex finishes speaking the girl lifts her right arm into the air and wiggles her pointer finger around in a loop, placing her other hand behind her back while at the same time closing her eyes and sticking her tongue out, playfully mocking Alex for his humorous little comment. "Silly boy, only the one that chooses to fight us can learn our names...Something about honoring your opponent's presence, showing dignity, or whatever various kinds of bullcrap Zeno lectures on about during our meetings."

"Yep, definitely sounds her age...That age being one of a spoiled, back-talking teenager..." Alex thinks to himself once again, his eyes closed while he does this. After that, the group huddles up in a circle once again in order to decide just who will fight this warrior. "I don't know guys, I'm wondering if this girl is just the daughter of one of the guardians...After all, she seems a little bit..." Geno lifts his head up, watching as the girl sways back and forth, whistling a tune while both of her arms are held behind her back. One of the doll's eyes start to twitch uncontrollably, as he slowly lowers his head back down in order to whispers to the group again. "...Out there." He says to finish his sentence. "I don't know Geno, the only people that seem to live in this area are the seven guardians of this temple and the guy we met outside...The seven warriors are also all related to each other by the sounds of things, so unless you really want to delve into the possibility of in-" "Ok, no Gemini, I don't want to." The doll stops Gemini from finishing that sentence, knowing full well what he was just about to say.

"So if she is the guardian..." Mario says. "Then who would be best suited to fight her?" "Not me bro, I'm not going to hit a girl." Luigi says. "Same." Gemini, Geno, and Alex all say in unison. "So that just leaves me, Alpha, and Mallow..." Mario tries to think things over for a moment, but Alpha has something to say before he can begin. "I think Mallow should do it. Just saying, his weather based spells would probably be the best way to deal with this girl's water based techniques, considering Luigi and my Lieutenant have decided to take the honorable route here and all..." The two people Alpha mentioned let out a light cough, then nervously rub the back of their heads. Mario turns his head to look at Mallow, who seems to be deep in thought about something. "Would you be ok fighting a girl Mallow?"

Mario's words cause the cloud Princee to snap out of it and raise his head up. When he turns around to look at the girl, she can still be seen whistling to herself. "You shouldn't have to ask Mario, you know I've already had to hit a woman once before in my life..." Mallow reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out his Ribbit Stick, while at the same time he bites down on his lower lip and stares nervously at the girl. "Then again...Valentina never tried to hit on me..." From the corner of her eye the girl notices Mallow stepping up to the plate with weapon in hand, and at this point she stops moving back and forth and repeatedly claps her hands out in front of her chest. "Awesome! Took you guys long enough to choose someone! Now, if you may, little cloud…" The girl pulls her rod out once again and lashes it out at the water. Another stone platform rises out of the water and floats on the surface in front of Mallow. The same happens to the left of the remaining group members as well. "Now, brave warrior, step on this platform. The rest of you losers can get on that other platform and be on your way~" At first her words sound honorable, but then they quickly change to being blunt and degrading, yet at the same time one can detect a playful tone in her voice.

Mallow hops on the stone platform in front of him, while the rest of the group walks onto the other platform. Without warning, the group's platform begins to float through the water, heading straight for the other side without stopping whatsoever. As they pass by, Mario tips his hat down and gives a thumbs up to his friend, in a way wishing him the best of luck in his fight. When the platform reaches it's destination, the group gets off and begin to ascend up the nearby stairway. After a couple of seconds a wall of seaweed rises from the ground to cover the door up. The girl is seen holding her rod out towards the passageway, after which she turns her head to look at Mallow and lifts her right leg into the air, bending it at the knee so the bottom half is resting right below her hip. She also spins the rod around in the air rapidly, where eventually Mallow notices that three prongs have spontaneously grown at the tip of the rod. After she stops spinning, she stamps her foot down on the ground, her newly formed trident held diagonally towards it. Bending her head back slightly, she raises one finger into the air and points it at Mallow.

"Long since have the tides shifted from high to low, deep within the most sacred of waters is a secret that one cannot hope to know..." Placing her raised foot back onto the ground, the girl slashes at the air with her trident and suddenly the waters begin to stir. "I am Tina Aqua, now how will you brave these wild waters, Nimbusian?" Mallow starts loses his balance as the platform begins to shift around. The cloud prince then notices that he seems to be moving away from where Tina is currently standing, and the platform she's standing on seems to be sinking into the water. "What is she up to..." Mallow thinks to himself. While being so deep in thought, he is greatly surprised when his platform begins to tilt downward, pointing itself at the direction of Tina's platform. It is at this point that the cloud Prince finally realizes what is going on. Tina had turned the body of water into a rapidly spinning whirlpool!

As the waters churned around the room like liquid in a blender, a few waves rose up and splashed against the walls, a few droplets managing to stick to the cracks. Due to the slippery nature of the marble, Mallow begins to slide down towards the water. He knows that one misstep and he will be completely at the girl's mercy. So he quickly grabs onto the edge of the platform with one hand, grasps his staff in the other, and uses both of his feet to keep himself steady on the diagonal surface. Tina herself is standing in the middle of this vortex, both of her eyes closed and her hands waving back and forth, similar to how a maestro leads an orchestra. "I got to take this opportunity to attack while she's distracted." Mallow thinks to himself, pointing the tip of his staff outward from the side of his body. "SHOCKER!" He exclaims. From the instant he yells out the spells name, the tip of his rod sparks with a mass of electricity, which soon after fires a powerful bolt straight at Tina.

"Tee hee..." She giggles to herself. Her body dissolves into a watery form. The entire liquid-y mass falls down at once onto the platform, allowing her to easily dodge Mallow's thunderbolt. The liquid then moves along the platform and falls off the edge, becoming one with the whirlpool she herself created. "What just happened?" Is all Mallow can say. Having focused only on his attack, he failed to notice Tina's transformation. A strange gurgling noise can be heard coming from the water, with bubbles slowly rising to the surface behind Mallow's platform. Without warning, a massive pillar of water bursts out from below and nearly capsizes both Mallow and his platform. "Whoa!" The cloud prince tries his hardest to keep himself attached to the platform, as water geysers continue to erupt all around him. At last though one of them hit their mark, smashing right into the bottom of the platform and sending both it and Mallow propelling through the air.

Realizing that he is rapidly approaching the wall, the Nimbusian lets go of the platform before he gets crushed between both objects. Luckily for him, he is able to land safely on one of the log platforms before the marble smashes into the wall and shatters. Mallow raises his arms over his head in order to block the falling chunks, a couple bounce off of his arms, and the rest fall into the water. Lowering his arms back to his side, he brushes a sweatdrop off of his head, wrongfully assuming that he can get a quick breather in in order to think of a plan. However, Tina is going to have none of that. From where the marble platform once stood another geyser bursts out of the water, followed by a few more in rapid succession, all of them moving ever so closer to where Mallow stands. But as the geyser erupts underneath the platform in the middle of the whirlpool, the cloud Prince gets ready to cast another spell, holding his staff out in front of his body once again. It's then that he realizes that something is up though, as the marble platform was not flung into the air by the force of the geyser's eruption. In fact, the geysers simply stop erupting once it hits the platform.

As the water falls down though, Tina is seen standing on the platform once again, letting the water droplets rain down all-around her. Then they all freeze in place, forming a dome around her body. The girl raises her arms into the air, pointing both of her hands down towards the water. Due to the continuous spinning of the whirlpool, Mallow is currently floating on his platform right behind her. Everything is silent for but a few seconds, Mallow himself making no attempts to attack at this moment due to what happened the last time. "Rain, Accelerator Storm." She says in a monotone voice. Waving her arms down towards the ground, all the water droplets take the shape of needles and turn around so they are pointed straight towards Mallow. Any of the droplets that lay behind Tina turn into mist so they won't hit her.

After lowering her hands she snaps her fingers to command the needles to fly through the air and bombard Mallow. Considering the high speeds that they are moving at, Mallow only has enough time to hold his arms up to attempt to block the needles. But that's the thing about needles…They easily pierce weak defense such as that of Mallow's soft cloudy arms. In an instant, the needles are burying themselves through the cloud prince's arms, ripping right through them and smashing into his head soon after. Then with great speed they pierce through his body and emerge on the other side, falling right back into the water they came from. It was lucky for Mallow that he is the kind of creature he is, or that attack would've marked the end of him. The wounds created by the needles' impact heal up soon after, but when Mallow lowers his arms he is showing signs of being worn down.

"Huff…Ha…" He breathes out in pain, paying close attention to Tina as he spins around the room. "I'm glad that attack didn't kill me…But that was still horrible to experience…" The girl slowly turns her head to the left, with a somewhat frightening grin on her face. Mallow realizes at that point that she is just about ready to fire off another attack. "Great…I'm at a huge disadvantage here…Not only has her last attack worn me down to the point of near exhaustion, but due to my horrible jumping ability I can't hope to dodge another one of her attacks by leaping to another platform…" Then an idea pops into Mallow's head. Rubbing his chin with his free hand, he contemplates the possibilities of success in his plan. "That could work…" He whispers to himself.

Tina takes her trident and lifts it into the air, holding it tightly behind her head at the same time that Mallow raises his staff into the air. "Raise, Hyper Current!" Putting as much force as she possibly can into tossing her trident, she flings her weapon into the water, upon impact a massive geyser erupts out of it as the weapon begins to tear through the surface, splashing water everywhere in a violent manner. "Perfect." Mallow grins, as the air in the room starts to slowly become chilled "SNOWY!" He thus exclaims. Before the trident reaches his platform, a medium-sized snowman with a red bucket on it's head falls from out of nowhere and smashes down on top of it. Upon impact the trident is frozen in place, trapped in a block of ice. The water that was splashed up by the trident rushing through the whirlpool has also been completely frozen, creating a bridge made out of ice that connects Mallow's platform to the one that Tina is currently standing on.

"Oh dear…" The girl says, though from the tone of her voice you could tell that didn't feel too concerned about what Mallow just did. Deciding the make his move, the cloud Prince makes a small leap over to the ice bridge, quickly being forced to keep himself balanced right when he lands on it. Making a charge towards Tina's platform, Mallow fails to notice her snapping her fingers behind her back. Getting ever closer to where she stands, he feels heat rising up from the waters below him. This was not a good thing, for the heated waters would quickly melt the ice bridge and leave him completely at her mercy. "Got to make it over while I still can!" He says to himself, gritting his teeth and preparing to make one final charge to the platform, knowing fully well that one wrong move will send him sliding across the ice and into the water.

"Tee hee." Tina giggles at the sight of Mallow's valiant effort to attack her, but as the ice bridge melts away her trident is thawed out as well. Deciding to take her leave, she somersaults through the air, leaping right over Mallow and landing on the platform that he had been on before. Her trident leaps out of the water and goes straight into her right hand, where she then lifts it up into the air with a triumphant look on her face. Mallow looks dumbfounded for a moment as he finally reaches the middle platform, but that look is quickly switched out for that of a cocky looking grin. "Got ya…" He declares quietly to himself. Before the ice melts away completely, Mallow turns himself around, skidding along the platform until the heels of his shoes are standing at the edge of the platform. Raising his staff into the air, Mallow casts another spell that summons a massive star from the air that flies at great speeds towards Tina.

Due to her overconfidence, Tina barely notices the object coming towards her. It's only until it is nearly right in her face that she turns around, only for the star to smack right into her and knocking her right off the platform she's standing on. Being carried forward by the force of the attack, Tina is unable to defend herself as the star promptly explodes before it makes contact with the water, a few little stars being spread out from the circumference of the blast. A splash mark could be seen in the water, indicating that Tina has been knocked into her own whirlpool. "Whew…Didn't think that would work…." As the waters within the whirlpool begin to calm down, they also start to rise up back to their normal height. In a matter of seconds they have returned to their normal state, a calm, unmoving pond.

"I guess I won…" Mallow looks around, but sees that he is trapped on the center platform with no way to make it over to the other side. A sweat drop forms on his face. "Ok…so how do I get out of here?" He says to himself. He receives an answer to his question not a moment afterwards, but not from the person he expected to hear it from. "You don't!" Those two words echoed throughout the room, coming from the girl that Mallow had thought he had defeated. After recognizing the voice, he slowly turns his head around, praying that what he heard was just his imagination. His prayer went unheard though, for what he saw was Tina's head rising slowly out of the water, eventually following that is her shoulders and her stomach. But instead of the legs appearing, Tina raises her arms into the air, and the water rises along with the rest of her body.

Upon further inspection though, it seems as though her body has literally fused with the water itself. "You know, I tried being nice, TRIED to play fair, but you just had to hit me when I wasn't looking, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?" There a certain feeling of insanity being projected from her eyes, one that sends shivers down the area of Mallow's body where his spine should be. "Hahahahaha, HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" At this point it's crystal clear that Tina has snapped, her maniacal laughter continuing to echo throughout the room even after she finishes. The water continues to rise, until Tina's head is almost touching the ceiling. "I've paid attention during our battle, and though I may have gone completely INSANE at this point, I still noticed that you are incapable of jumping very far distances, which is why you had to make that ice bridge! Well now, face the threshold of my gigantic tidal wave and die!"

The tidal wave makes it's move, moving forward to wash away Mallow from the world forever. In desperation the cloud prince raises his staff above his head and prepares to cast another spell, a look of sheer terror shown on his face. "SNOWY!" He yells out. "Your trick won't work on me twice!" The snowman emerges from the sky once again, falling down towards Mallow. Just before it hits it's target though the wave crashes right down on top of him. Gallons of water is sent flying everywhere in the room, splashing to and fro off the walls and ceiling. A couple of the platforms smash into the walls and shatter instantly. It's impossible to see what has happened to Mallow and Tina, due to lack of luminosity in the depths of the water keeping them hidden.

When the waters begin to die down and everything has settled, Tina is seen standing by herself on a log platform. Her body is completely drenched in water, and at the same time she seems thinner and less muscular than she was before. This appearance doesn't stick around for long though, as the water drops on her body get absorbed into her skin and she returns to her normal proportions. "Well, that was fu-" At that exact moment, a lightning bolt strikes her exposed backside, sending tons of voltage flowing through her body. Her screams of pain are painful to hear, even more so when you consider that due to her association with water the electricity is dealing critical damage to her body. When the attack ends there is a massive burn mark on her back and her body is releasing tons of smoke from the pores in her skin. She is forced on her knees and clenches her chest in pain, her breathing becoming increasingly strained with every passing second.

"What...How..." She says to herself, panting for a couple seconds after each word is spoken. Weakly turning her head around, she notices Mallow standing on the marble platform in the center of the room, his staff held out horizontally in front of his body. "I don't understand..." Blood starts to come out of Tina's mouth, flowing past her lower lip and dripping down her chin and dripping onto the floor below. Mallow lets out a heavy yet tired sigh, using his staff to cast another spell on Tina. A small smiling cloud appears above her head, and a small drizzle rains down onto her. Magical energy sparks glow around her body, and in an instant her mouth stops bleeding. In fact, there are no longer any signs that she had ever been bleeding at all. Now utterly confused, Tina demands an explanation. "What is going on? What did you do?"

"I figured there was no way that I could avoid your attack or stop it in time with any of my own spells. So I quickly came up with a plan. By casting Snowy on myself I ended up frozen in a dome of ice, which not only kept me attached to the platform, but also prevented me from being swept away by your tidal wave." Mallow puts his staff away back into his pants. "But there was still the chance of your platform ramming into the wall...which would have shattered you into pieces, without you even knowing..." Tina responds. "That's true. Really, I knew that before I froze myself, so I simply got lucky in that regard. Then after the waters died down, the ice thawed out, and I took advantage of the fact that you thought I was dead in order to strike you with my Shocker spell."

Tina bites down on her lower lip. As much as she hates to admit it, Mallow did beat her fair and square. But one thing still confused her. "Why did you heal me?" She asks, no longer having a sarcastic tone in her voice, but instead a truly honorable one. "Well...I'll be honest. I used up all of my MP to deal with your attacks, I only had enough to perform a low-level version of my HP Rain. At the very least, I prevented you from dying. As for why I did it, well...besides the obvious option of 'It's the right thing to do', I realized that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I took the life of an innocent human being...Sure you did try to kill me, but all you were trying to do was protect your master's legacy, right?" Tina blushes, slowly nodding her head in response to Mallow's question. "Yes, you are correct."

"You have won...Ummm, I didn't catch your name, I got so excited about fighting someone after so long that I didn't allow you to introduce yourself." The girl nervously rubs the back of her head, innocently sticking her tongue out slightly and giggling to herself. Hard to believe that just a while ago this girl was acting the way she was. Now she seems content with herself, almost as if she is happy that she lost the battle to Mallow. "My name is Mallow." The cloud prince generously replies. "Mallow...What a nice name." Retracting her tongue back into her mouth, she gets a merry grin on her face, then takes her trident and taps the water with the tip of the prongs. A series of platforms rise from the water, connecting Mallow's platform to the edge of the passageway, Tina's platform, and the lift where the cloud prince and his companions had entered from. Then, the prongs on her weapon disappear, allowing her to put the rod back in the holder that rests near her hips. "You can go now..." She says.

Instead of heading towards the door though, Mallow walks over to the girl's platform, places his right arm around her back and his left arm around her chest. "Now this I'm doing because 'It's the right thing to do'." He says, starting to make his way over to the passageway with Tina in his arms. "Hehe...Are you sure you'll be able to catch up with your friends?" She asks. "Maybe, maybe not. But that's the thing about friends, you don't need to be directly by their side in order to support them..." With those words said, the cloud prince and the warrior of water continue on their way...

_Next Time: The Fog of Weighted Sin_


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note:**

Haven't had one of these in a while have I now? I just want to say I'm sorry for the previous notes where I asked for reviews and the like. It is nice to know that I have fans of this work, even if I only know of five at the time of putting this chapter up.

Just a quick warning for the next chapter after this one. It is a long one, like, you know how the longest chapter neared 10k words? Expect the next one to reach about 20k, but there is a good reason for that. So I got a lot to go through and edit, and with Mario Party 9 coming out tomorrow I may be playing that instead of working on the edits. So if the chapter isn't up by the end of the night tomorrow it will be up Monday. Thank you and enjoy this chapter!

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><p><strong>Chapter 39: Dawn of Genesis IV: Deceitful Fog Veil<strong>

_18 minutes remain..._

Leaving Mallow to fight his battle, the heroes ascend the nearby staircase to go on their way to the next floor. Alex has something on his mind though, and seeing as it continues to bother him, he decides to share it with the rest of the group. "...Do you guys think I'm weak?" He says in a nervous tone. At that very moment everyone stops moving, turning their heads and nervously shuffling their arms around while trying to come up with an answer to the young boy's question. "Yes." The one to break the silence is Alpha, who says the word with a very blunt tone of voice. "Now hang on a mo-" Mario turns towards Alpha with his fists at the ready, but Gemini holds his arm out to prevent the plumber from advancing any further. "But you don't have yourself to blame for that. There are people in this world that are born weak, those that are born strong, and those who are gifted by the gods themselves. What truly makes a difference in this world though is whether or not you will lay down like a dog and accept that you are weak, or you work to better yourself so you can overcome any obstacles that stand in your path."

Alpha turns around and looks Alex straight in the eyes. To anyone else his stare would be intimidating, but considering the calm, fatherly tone he took when he spoke just now, Alex feels no fear as he looks at the Commander. "Consider this Alex. Was it not due to your bravery that you were able to save everyone from falling to their deaths in the Terra Cave? Was it not also you who saved Mario from death at the hands of the Dark Crystal King at least once? You have done your fair share for the team, so don't worry about it, ok?" After all that was said, the Commander takes a deep breath in and exhales the air out of his mouth. "Alright, let's get moving." He then says. Without anything else to say, the rest of the group turns around and continue on their way. Alex reaches into his left pant pocket and pulls out the wind stone, giving it a nice long look while contemplating something in his head.

"But it wasn't because of me that they were saved...It was all the stones' doing..." He whispers tom himself. Clenching the stone tightly in his fist, Alex decides that he shouldn't waste time wallowing in self-pity. He had a gut feeling that he would soon be able to prove that he could fight using his own power. Placing the stone back in his pocket, Alex gets a determined look on his face and runs forward to catch up with the rest of the group. Before he catches up though, Geno has a few words to say to Mario, and promptly approaches his side in order to make it easier for the both of them to have a conversation without the rest of the group interrupting. "What is it Geno?" Mario whispers to the star herald. "I noticed you getting a bit aggravated back there...Are you still feeling angry because of what Alpha did to Alex in the copter?" The doll says in a quiet tone.

"Yes..." Mario responds. "Usually I can tell whether someone is either good or evil...but Alpha is impossible to figure out..." "I see your point." Geno replies and closes his eyes while crossing his arms. "On one hand, he did save our lives...but then you have to take into consideration what he did to Alex..." "Exactly." Mario responds. "I just don't know how I can bring myself to trust this guy...Even though he's working with us..." Alpha could be seen looking off to the left, his above-average hearing allowing him to pick up on a few of the key details in Mario and Geno's conversation. Letting out a light sigh, the Commander chooses to keep quiet about the matter for the time being. "...Hmph." Is all he says, returning his focus back onto the staircase and noticing that they have almost reached the top.

"Get ready everyone, our next opponent shall be waiting for us at the top." Gemini says. The demon Koopa had been prepped and ready to go into battle ever since they had arrived. He understood the reasons for why he couldn't fight the grass guardian, but the water one would've been PERFECT for him. "Still, what's done is done" he thought to himself. "Ok, so with five warriors left, that should leave one for wind, lightning, earth, ice, and fire. I could probably take the lightning, ice and fire guys...But Earth and Wind would be harder to deal with..." It is at this point that Gemini realizes something. "Of course...It's so obvious!" As they enter the next room, Gemini snaps his fingers together.

A thick veil of fog shrouds the entirety of the room, the only thing that is visible is the passageway at the very end of the room, due to a couple of lit torches on both sides of the doorway. The group takes their time as they advance through the area, taking extreme amounts of caution to avoid any traps that may be set up in the room. Suddenly, Alpha feels a chill coming down the back of his body, as if someone in the room was trying to get his attention. Stopping in place at the very center of the room, Alpha closes his eye and holds his arms behind his back. As soon as Luigi stops hearing Alpha's footsteps he turns around to see what's up. "You coming?" He asks. The sound of the man in green's voice prompts the rest of the group to turn their heads so they can see the Commander from over their shoulders. Letting out a light chuckle, he merely takes his right hand out and waves his fingers forward. "No need to worry about me, I'm just going to stick behind to examine this room for a little bit." He says.

"Are you certain that you should be doing that?" Mario asks. "I don't see what the problem is here Mario." Alpha says with an authoritative tone, slightly opening his eye and giving the plumber a nice, firm glare. "Oh wait, I know what the problem is...You don't trust me, do you?" The plumber flinches in surprise, and for good reason too. He didn't think it would've been possible for Alpha to have overheard him, but that question was too precise for it to be just a simple guess. Turning around, the plumber decides to truthfully answer Alpha's question. "Yes, I do not trust you. You may have helped us so far, but after seeing you torture Alex like you did I don't know how you expect me NOT to act cautiously around you..."

Everyone is silent for a few seconds, until Alpha decides to speak up once again. "I admit, I did go overboard with Alex. It was not necessary, and I'm sorry that I did it." Tightly clenching his fingers together into the shape of a fist, Alpha looks at his mechanical hand and begins to reminisce about the past. "This body of mine has lived through some very dark times, times when heroes such as yourself weren't around to protect the innocent. You can distrust me if you wish Mario, but every time you do so I will merely look you in the eyes and tell you the same thing over and over again." Alpha lifts his head up and looks straight into the plumber's blue eyes. "Everyone else's needs come before my own..."

With that comment said, Mario closes his eyes and turns around, reluctantly making his way to the passageway and leaving the group to stare at him as if they are expecting a response from him. The plumber only lifts his left hand up and holds it out to his side. "Do what you wish then Commander. Come on everyone." Without saying a word, the rest of the group follows Mario up the nearby staircase, and only Gemini turns around to give Alpha one last concerned glance. When they've all vanished into the darkness of the passage, Alpha puts his right hand behind his back and lets out a serious chuckle to himself. "Alright, you can come out now, warrior of the wind." The Commander speaks as though another person stands before him, even though he is the only living thing in sight at this moment.

A calm breeze blows through the room, which in turn causes a few leaves to rise up from the ground and follow the path which the wind has chosen to blow across. Spiraling up towards the ceiling, the wind becomes slightly visible as it picks up dust and forms into the shape of a small whirlwind. Emerging from nothingness is a tall, muscular, and elderly man that looks to be in his mid-60's. He wears a dark grey poncho with trails of light blue cloth hanging down from his shoulders. The poncho reaches down to his kneecaps, where he can be seen wearing a pair of tattered jeans on his legs. He has a stubby white beard that looks as soft as a cloud, his silver dreadlock hair style flows down past his shoulders, and by looking in his solemn yellow eyes you can tell that he is both calm and wise, befitting for a man of his age and stature. He keeps his hand hidden underneath his poncho, choosing not to make his weapon known to his opponent at this time.

"I'm surprised you picked up on my existence, little one." The man says in a regal tone. "It's not like you made yourself that hard to find, what with you brushing me on the back with your delicate, wrinkled hand. Then again, I'm not surprised that you tried to get my attention, I was already chosen to fight you before I even entered the temple." The man lifts his left hand out from underneath his poncho and rubs his chin, revealing a ring of thickened fog that is wrapped around his pinky. "I have no clue what you are talking about." The man says, attempting to feign innocence. Alpha knows better though, and decides to continue speaking. "That little pathway right outside the grove of palm trees. As we walked along it an image was projected into my head which showed your silver hair swaying in the breeze. Now lo and behold, I'm in the room that represents the sky right now, and what happens?" Alpha asks, clearly waiting for the man to answer the question himself. "You put two and two together and realized that the image you saw was merely a premonition that told you who you were to fight, correct?"

"That's pretty much the gist of things." The Commander replies. "As for the others, either their oblivious about the existence of those premonitions, or they feel that there is no reason to bring them up. Still, I have one more question to ask before we begin." "Ask away." The man puts his hand back down to the side of his body. "All of you who guard this temple, does your group have a name?" "That, is something I will tell you if you can manage to overcome me." "I figured that would be your answer..." Alpha cracks his knuckles and places both of his arms out in front of his body. "I am Alpha, Commander of the M.S.I...I get the feeling that you will be quite a difficult opponent to face." He says with an honor filled tone. "I'm pleased to hear such words from my opponent...I am Darnia Stratos. The wind cannot be seen, but quite often can it be heard. Knocking down the mightiest trees, is a storm that cannot be endured."

Alpha quickly changes his right arm into it's cannon form and turns around in an attempt to fire off a quick shot at Darnia. But to his surprise not only does his shot miss and break apart a nearby wall, but the guardian himself is nowhere to be found. A brief look of surprise appears on the Commander's face, but he quickly realizes that his opponent has probably retreated into the fog once more. "Do not be rash now..." The elderly man speaks out from afar. Alpha hears the sound of the wind picking up speed, so with quick reflexes he turns around and holds his left arm out in front of his body, summoning his energy shield to block a small incoming tornado. When it hits the rapidly spinning blades of wind that make up the structure of the tornado begin to push Alpha back, his feet continuously been dragged against the surface of the floor. "Grrr..." The Commander musters all of his strength in order to keep himself stuck in place, the heels of his feet pushing back the rocks on the ground to form a small wall that prevents any further movement.

"Interesting..." Darwin's voice speaks out again. Alpha hears more wind blowing from behind and changes his right arm back into it's normal form before quickly summoning another shield from that arm to block a second incoming tornado. With two powerful forces of nature pressing against the shields on both sides of his body, the Commander finds himself becoming increasingly hard-pressed to keep them from ripping his shields right off of his arms and tearing him apart. "Got to work quickly here." He whispers to himself. Transferring his strength from his arms to his legs, Alpha makes a swift leap up into the air. Due to building up so much force, the two tornadoes promptly ram into each other just as soon as Alpha is out of the way. Upon collision the two forces of nature die down and vanish into nothingness. "What the..." He says in a somewhat puzzled tone. "Oh, I see what's going on here." Getting a confident smirk on his face, Alpha turns his right arm into a cannon once again and fires a red energy ball at the ground below.

Upon making contact with the ground the ball shrinks to a smaller size before it implodes. The blast from the attack kicks a bunch of dust clouds up into the air, some of which flies into Alpha's face and forces him to close his eye to avoid being blinded. It's at this point that the Commander is cut across the back by some invisible force and knocked down towards the ground, his eye opening up wide out of shock. Upon landing in the center of the crater that was formed by the shot fired from Alpha's Ion Cannon, the dust has finished settling. Cracking his mechanical muscles, the Commander pushes himself up off the ground with both of his hands and is back on his feet in no time. However, he is now breathing in and out at an abnormal pace, and it's not because of the damage he suffered at the hands of the impact with the ground.

"What...I barely got hurt..." He thinks to himself. "I felt something...But what..." Looking around, it seems as though the fog has gotten thicker, if that was even possible... "You...trying to make it harder...for me...to find you..." "I assure you that I have nothing to do with this fog." Darnia speaks out to the perplexed Goomba. Alpha, who continues to look around the room in an attempt to find out where the man's voice is coming from. "What...do you mean?" "This room, it projects the emotions of a person's heart into different forms of weather. Positive emotions shall keep this room clear and sunny, negative emotions shall cause this room to be covered by the fog you see around you. Interestingly enough, this room was already being covered by fog long before you had arrived, and it continues to get thicker with each passing second."

"So...what?" Is all Alpha can bring himself to say. "What is on your mind?" Darnia asks. "My mind?" The Commander aims his cannon to the right and fires another shot. Once again it misses, which does nothing more than continue to aggravate Alpha. "You were close that time. But being close is not enough against someone like me." Turning his cannon back to it's normal form, Alpha tries to figure out what is going on. "Something is up...I heard him coming from that direction..." As he thinks to himself, his body is cut once again by the same invisible force as before. "Ggggkkk!" The Commander is forced to close his mouth, slamming his teeth together and bending down so his hands are resting on the ground. Then he begins to breathe again, though it is now even harder to do so than before. "...What..." Alpha takes a moment to think things over.

"It's like...he is...stealing the oxygen...from my...body..." When his body is cut once again, Alpha is only able to take a breath every five seconds, each one becoming increasingly harder to get out of his mouth. "No...he...is...But how..." Alpha struggles to keep his eye open while he thinks of a plan. "I'm surprised." Darnia says. "Any creature born of flesh would've fallen after three hits." The man's words echo within Alpha's head, as the Commander begins to experience memories from the past...He sees images of a peaceful landscape scorched by blackened flames, a gigantic Koopa that dwarfs Bowser in size preparing to step on him, Cackletta laughing to herself in a realm of darkness, and finally a regular Koopa whose face is obscured by the bright light from the rising sun turns around and begins to speak to Alpha. _"Don't hate what you assume to be a curse, adapt to it, and make it your own power..."_

With those motivational words from the mysterious Koopa overcoming that of the voice of the elderly man, Alpha flips his hands around so the palms are laid against the ground, and pushes himself back up on his feet once again. He leaps out of the crater and takes one look around the battlefield. Despite the loss of oxygen, Alpha finds new strength by relying on his resolve to keep himself going. "You are right, Darnia." He says, moving his right hand so it is now placed over his eyepatch. "Huh?" The elderly man replies in a puzzled tone. "Any creature made of flesh would've been killed by your technique." His grip on the eyepatch tightens, the metallic fingertips digging under it's edges. "Unluckily for you though, the many ordeals I've suffered through during my lifespan have left me with very few organic features...Besides my skin and my organs..." Alpha rips his eyepatch off of his face and promptly discards it, closing both of his eyelids tightly for a few moments at the same time.

First he opens up his normal eye on the left. Then, he slowly opens up his right eye, and as he does one can see small, blinking red and yellow lights attached to a metallic sphere with a glass orange orb in the very center of it, where a bright light projects a thin orange glow into the room. A couple of metal plates are placed on the eye to reinforce a few weak spot that exist on it's surface. "I am a machine, a machine who cannot stop." Alpha's mechanical eye begins to scan over the room in an attempt to detect Darnia's life energy. "You were saying earlier how the fog in this room is a projection of my negative emotions? I've lived on this planet for almost forty years, with these mechanical hands I have defended the weak and raised generation after generation of good men who have been willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of the world...At the same time though, I have had to dirty my hands in order to get things done...I've killed many creatures, both innocent and chaotic, the ghosts of which once haunted me in my sleep...Unable to risk slipping into insanity, I've forced myself to stay awake almost day after day to ensure that I am not haunted by their ghastly forms...But there is one person who I must see fall by my hand, and until she falls...I WILL CONTINUE TO BURDEN MYSELF WITH THESE SINS IN ORDER TO PROTECT EVERYONE!"

Looking from the PoV of Alpha's mechanical eye, one can see the outline of an invisible man running towards Alpha with a weapon raised over his head, a target reticule focuses on the center of the man's body and a electronic "click" being heard, indicating that Alpha had finally managed to lock-on to the man's energy signal. "Got you..." Raising his left arm out horizontally in front of his body, Alpha summons his shield once again, successfully blocking an incoming slash from Darnia's weapon. "What?" The Commander's unexpected move had broken the man's calm demeanor, forcing him to yell out in surprise. "I almost got you figured out now..." "Hmph..." Not phased by Alpha's words, Darnia quickly leaps back and flips his weapon around so it's held behind his back. As he prepares to swing, Alpha closes his eyes and begins to think of a plan. Like before during his battle with Giga Bowser, time grinds to a halt...

He projects numbers and formulas into his head, at the same time thinking about all that had occurred during the battle so far. _"I've managed to get a lock on this guy by using my eye, but what puzzles me still is the fact that I cannot seem to hit him..." _An outline of the man's body pops up in his mind, which had been recorded by the eye after it locked on him. He then zooms in on his hands and examines their structure. _"As I thought, no long nails...So when I entered the room, he had used his weapon to touch me..." _He then thinks back to when the man taunted him with the words _**"But being close is not enough to hit me"**_**, **and at that point he is able to put two and two together. Just to make sure that he is correct though, Alpha runs a scenario in his head, imagining the situation from earlier where he fired a shot at where he thought the man was standing. He includes every last detail into his mind, even down to where he heard the sound waves coming from. "Well, if that's the case...I guess there's only one thing I can do at this point..." He says quietly to himself, and upon opening his eyelids back up time moves at it's normal pace once more.

"Your sins shall be blown away! Judgment Squall!" Darnia uses most of his strength to swing his weapon at the air. The sheer force put into the slash scars the very air itself and unleashes an onslaught of violent wind blades towards Alpha. "I was hoping to save this for her...Whatever, it's not like I don't have other techniques under my belt to use..." As the Commander speaks to himself, his arms begin to morph into a goopy shape and shift around uncontrollably. "Stay focused..." He thinks to himself, closing his eyes and keeping his feet placed firmly on the ground as the wind blades begin to bombard his body, cutting him up with every passing second. The golden goop eventually begins to solidify, each arm now taking the shape of a majestic Chinese dragon head. Once completely solidified Alpha quickly opens his eyes up and with a quick reaction time he holds his left dragon head arm out to his side and the mouth of it clamps down, biting into a wind blade that just so happened to be passing by. Applying pressure onto the wind causes it to shatter into pieces, as if it were as delicate as glass.

"What...is this?" Darnia asks in confusion, yet his tone also underlies the intrigue he also feels. Alpha notices that the man's outline is backing away slowly, as if he fears the existence of his newly formed weapons. The mouth of the dragon head opens up slowly, as the Commander points it out in front of his body. "This is the first style...Of my Senki Soni technique. I call it the 'Peaceful Dragon'. Now I will show you what it is capable of..." Alpha runs towards where Darnia stands. Frozen in fear, the warrior is not able to do anything as Alpha thrusts both dragon head arms out in front of his body, which manages to hit the invisible man in the gut. "Graahh!" He exclaims in pain. Suddenly, his body becomes visible, revealing that the Commander's hands have clamped down onto the man's poncho. Staring up to look the man in the eyes, the Commander grins, as if he knew that he was now victorious.

"I would not have such a cocky grin Commander, your trickery has not disarmed me." Darnia reveals his weapon that was hidden behind his back, a black scythe that has many bumps on it's rod, each one filled with varying amounts of air. The elderly man swings the jagged tip of his scythe towards the side of Alpha's head, but to his surprise it only manages to pierce his skin, causing blood to slowly leak out from the wound. "What?" He exclaims in surprise. "Ah, you were trying to go for one last attack? Too bad your scythe can no longer become intangible, much like yourself." Realizing now that he has probably lost, Darnia decides to calm down and hear Alpha out. "Very well, explain yourself." He says.

"The dragon is a mythical creature, many legends speak of it's majestic presence scaring away the mightiest of armies, and it's breath reducing the proudest of empires to rubble. Various sorcerers and magicians alike would find that their magic was ineffectual against the creature, due to it's skin being shielded by a powerful anti-magic barrier. I figured out how to rip the skin off of one of these dragons and integrate it into my arms. Now, by using Senki Soni First Style: Peaceful Dragon, I can disable any magic that my opponents happen to have surrounding them. In other words, your intangibility and your scythe's ability to cut the oxygen from my lungs is gone as long as I keep these dragon heads attached either to your body, or an article of clothing attached to it." Silencing himself for a few moments, Darnia removes his scythe from Alpha's head and places it behind his back. "You have out-smarted me...Perform whatever move you wish to achieve victory, Alpha of the M.S.I."

"Heh, with pleasure, Darnia." Alpha swings his arms to the left, letting go of his grip on the man and sending him flying into a nearby wall. His impact cracks part of the wall, but it isn't until the Commander rushes over and slams his fully closed fist into the man's gut that the wall is blown apart. Dirt clouds fly into the air to cover up the view of the battle's end, but when they settle Alpha's arms have returned to their normal form, though now the Commander himself is breathing heavily once again. Darnia has been buried underneath the rubble from the wall's collapse, only his hands are sticking out from underneath the rocks. A few seconds later though, the man slowly raises his head out from underneath the rubble and looks at Alpha with a very serious look on his face. But that vanishes quickly enough, instead replaced by a smile as he bends his head back and begins to laugh out loud. "Hahahahahahahaha!" His laughter sounds cheerful, as if he doesn't even care that he lost. Seeing this, Alpha decides to start laughing himself, though his laughter is weaker in tone due to his body being tired from the battle. "Ha...haha...ha..."

After a few minutes of merry laughter, the two warriors start coughing once some dirt becomes lodged in their throats. After spitting it out, the two look at each other. Though Alpha won the battle, it seems as though they were both victorious in the end. The Commander graciously extends a hand out to show respect towards his opponent for such a valiant battle, and Darnia grabs hold of it so he can be lifted up off the ground. After brushing some dirt off of his shoulder, the warrior remembers what he said at the beginning. "Ok, as promised I will tell you our groups' name. We are the Genesis Samurais, the Elemental Overlord's most elite fighting force. I am the Genesis Samurai of the Storms, Darnia Stratos. The two your group had encountered in the rooms prior to this are Acia Rose, the Genesis Samurai of the Garden, and Tina Aqua, the Genesis Samurai of the Tides. Your friends that went on ahead shall encounter the remainder of my brethren, but I'm not going to tell you their names and titles because otherwise that would ruin the surprise..."

"Fair enough, thank you...But I do have to wonder…How have you guys managed to live in this temple for so long?" Alpha then inquires. "I only promised to answer that first question of yours, remember?" "True, true. You have your secrets, and I have mine. I must say though, you certainly a formidable yet honorable opponent, Darnia." The Commander says with a bow of the head. "The same can be said about yourself, Alpha." Darnia pulls out a pair of silver-rim glasses from underneath his poncho and places them on his face, completing an ensemble that he was lacking since before the battle began. "Now then, since I no longer have to guard this room, how about the two of us go join up with your friends so we can witness the Overlord's rebirth, eh?" Alpha chuckles, a pleased smile appearing on his face as he turns around and begins to walk into the fog. "That would be a great idea..." Darnia also smiles and walks over to Alpha's side, the two of them walking in unison through the fog to get to the passageway that will take them to the next floor. "By the way, would you like to discuss some philosophy along the way?" The elderly man politely asks. We do not hear Alpha's answer, as their voices become quieter and more unintelligible with each passing second...

_Next Time: Time Runs Short, A Three on Three Battle?_


	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40: Dawn of Genesis V: Three Element Breakdown**

_13 minutes remain..._

"Are you feeling any better Mario?" As the remaining heroes walk up the staircase, Gemini decided to ask the plumber that particular question. Stopping in place, he stays silent for a few seconds before turning around and revealing a cheerful smile on his face. Nudging the front of his cap up so everyone can get a better look at his eyes, everyone can feel his normal, heroic attitude projecting onto them. "To be honest, I am feeling a little better." He says. "How so?" Geno asks. "I guess it's because I feel I can trust Alpha a little more than I could before." "Well that's great to hear Mario." Gemini replies in earnest. Turning himself around and continuing to walk up the staircase alongside the rest of the group, Mario continues to talk to the group. "I guess I was still feeling a little angry about the whole Bowser incident...Sorry about that."

It was all a lie though. Mario had already gotten over that, having comforted Peach the night before and all. Glancing over his shoulder to look at Alex, Mario thought back to a few words that Alpha spoke grimly of last night. _"...I_ _can sense the discord that looms in the air. Stars are vanishing from the night sky, the Star Spirits aren't talking to Geno, and the fact that Cackletta continues to be involved...I think that Joe Dark might be-"_ He never finished saying what he thought Joe Dark might be, as Alex had interrupted them soon after. Speaking of the boy, Mario realized that only he, himself, and Alpha knew that Joe Dark was alive. Was now the best time to tell the remaining group members the truth? Being well prepared for another encounter with the insane young boy would be the wisest move, after all. Then Mario thinks to himself, "Last time we encountered him, he lived through one of Gemini's strongest attacks...Sure Gemini wasn't in his strongest form at the time, but would it really have made that much of a difference?"

Placing one hand underneath his chin, the plumber continues to ponder about the current situation that they are in. Mario had faced plenty of strange creatures in the past before. There were those who merely wished to rule the Kingdom, and then there were those who wished to see the end of everything. Joe Dark...was a different case. He didn't wish to dominate the world, he didn't wish to destroy it either. All he was fixated on was ending the life of one person, that person being Alex Whiter. "That's the problem though..." Mario thought to himself. Thinking back to the encounter with Joe Dark in the desert, he remembered the words that the boy yelled out to them. _"DEATH TO WHITER, AND EVERY DAMN PERSON WHO DECIDES TO DEFEND HIM!"_ He was a psychopath. He didn't care who he harmed, just as long as his methods bring about the death of the boy he was targeting.

For defending him, that makes everyone in the group minus Alpha a prime target for his revenge. Then he realized something else. For a time there it looked like Joe Dark was working with Cackletta. Could the witch, knowing all to well his reasons for being in this world, have fed him lies to trick him into believing that everyone on this planet is defending Alex? "No..." He shook his head in order to rid himself of that awful thought. "Cackletta is only interested in world domination. Killing everyone would prevent her from getting what she wants..." Was Mario ridding that thought from his mind because he realized that his theory was improbable? Or did he not want to weigh his mind down with such a depressing thought? Not even he himself knew the answer to that question, instead he was only focused on one thing. "I have to tell them..." He thinks to himself. "G-" "We're here." Mario is only able to say a single letter before he is promptly interrupted by Luigi.

Having now arrived at the next room, the group takes a moment to take in the sights around them. The area was split into three different sections. The left side is covered completely in metal, with a few gold and black colored plates here and there to prevent the place from looking dull. The middle area is a vast, rocky landscape covered with boulders on the ground and sedimentary spikes on the ceiling. The right side is covered completely in a sheet of ice, with three stationary icicles hanging down from the ceiling. A slow, quiet clapping sound can be heard coming from the opposite end of the room, the sounds growing louder with each passing second. Staring at the passageway lying in plain sight, the group watches as a figure emerges from the darkness.

The figure is revealed to be a young teen who looks to be around the same age as the first warrior they met in the temple, wearing black leather pants with a few yellow stripes painted right between the knees and the waist area. A metal chain is wrapped around his waist, acting as a belt to keep his pants from falling off. On the upper part of his body is a dark yellow vest that has a single pocket with a golden locket held inside of it. Underneath said vest is a dark purple sleeveless shirt. There is a strange, ancient looking bracelet on the boy's left arm, and his right hand has a metal nut wrapped around his ring finger. His yellow eyes show a deep feeling of excitement, his black eyebrows having been raised up to add on to the cheerful expression on his face. His hair is spiked upwards, with there also being two separate parts of his hair that extends down over his shoulders, both parts shaped to resemble lightning bolts.

As he walks out towards the very center of the room, he continues to stare at the group, turning his head from left to right in order to get a better look at them all. After a few seconds, his mood goes from being excited, to being somewhat disappointed. "So these are the remaining guys? Not exactly much to look at here, is there? ..." He says in a sad tone. Upon finishing clapping, the boy gives a little shrug with his shoulders and places his left arm down by his side while taking his right arm and hold it out in front of his chest, pointing a finger at the heroes while waving it back and forth. "Still, I know better than to judge people based on their looks alone..." He says quietly to himself. He points his finger towards Gemini, Geno, and Luigi in that order. "Ok, you three are to stay here. The other two members of your group will be allowed to go on ahead."

The three heroes that the boy pointed at exchange confused looks with each other, then turn their heads back around in order to ask him a question. "What's going on here?" Geno is the first to ask. Rubbing the back of his head, the boy lets out a nervous giggle and taps his left foot on the ground. "Well...Old man Zeno told me that we are running out of time, so in order to speed things up we are going to have a 1 vs. 3 battle." The boy's words sounded a bit...suspicious, to say the least. "What happened to all that talk about 'Proving one's individual strength'?" Gemini inquires. A little upset by the group's choice of questions, the boy gets a serious look on his face and once again shrugs his shoulders. "Look, I don't make the rules, I simply follow them...Point is, if you don't follow them by us guardians, then your quest will end here and you will be kicked out of the temple."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Geno closes his eyes and folds his arms into his chest. "So we really don't have a choice in the matter, do we?" He says. "Fraid not." The boy responds. "Very well." Luigi says. The green plumber turns around and walks over to Mario, who feels that they shouldn't trust this mysterious boy. "Luigi, are you certain about this?" He whispers to his brother. "It could be a trap..." "If it is..." The man in green glances over his shoulder to look at the boy, who is looking at his bracelet while tapping his foot on the ground. "Then we will be able to handle whatever they decide to toss our way bro." Mario nods his head, and gives his brother one quick reassuring glance before proceeding to walk over to Alex and letting him know that he is ready to move on. Alex is a bit resistant at first, but one quick look over at the three heroes dispels all doubts in his mind, and thus he begins to walk towards the passageway at the end of the room with the rotund plumber standing by his side.

Gemini and Luigi do a few stretches to get their muscles working before the battle begins, while Geno has no need to do such a thing. "Alright, now that your friends are gone, there is one last thing I need to mention before we begin." Gemini puts his arms out in front of his body and cracks his knuckles. "And that would be?" He says. "You are all going to start the battle off in different parts of them room. Shell guy, you come with me to the metal side. Stiff man, stay on this side, but move a little bit forward. And Green plumber, go to the icy side of the room." Complying to the boy's simple request, the Koopa walks with him over to the metallic side, while Geno and Luigi go to the areas that he had told them to go over to. The boy walks over to the northern end of the room, while Gemini stays near the southern end.

"Alright, now that everything has been set up, I might as well say one final, FINAL thing." Gemini glares at the boy, annoyed at the fact that he still has more to say. "What now?" He asks. "When I said that we were going to have a 1 vs. 3 battle...Iwasn'treallytellingthetruth." He says the last part of his sentence swiftly yet quietly. "…What did you say?" Gemini asks due to not being able to understand the boy's last few words. "NOW!" He suddenly exclaims, which manages to catch the demon Koopa off-guard due to how unexpected it was. The entire room begins to tremble violently, and while the heroes try their hardest to keep themselves balanced the boy merely stands still and wait patiently for it all to pass over. Gemini takes a quick look over at the rocky section, and that's when he realizes something that should've been obvious from the start. "Of course...We aren't just fighting the Lightning guy here, but the Earth AND Ice warriors too!"

"Correction, YOU aren't going to be fighting them, but your friends most certainly will." The boy says. Puzzled, Gemini turns his head to the left and looks the boy straight in the eyes. "What do you mean by that?" The boy stays silent, with the knowledge that he will not need to answer Gemini's question using mere words. And he is right too, for at that moment a boulder pops out of the ground on the earth side of the room, which in turn causes a thick rocky wall to erupt from the part of the room that divides both the metal and rocky sections into two separate areas. The rock wall rams into the ceiling, digging itself through the surface in order to make it impossible for even the smallest of creatures to slip through. Worried about Geno's safety, Luigi tries to run across the icy floor in order to reach him, but one of the icicles on the ceiling detaches itself and falls down onto the ground, at the same time a wall of ice falls down from the ceiling and smashes against the ground. Due to it's thickness, it doesn't shatter, but not only is Luigi now trapped on one side of the room, Geno is trapped in the middle, and Gemini is trapped on the left side with the mysterious boy.

"...Ok, you've made your point." Gemini reaches into his shell and pulls out his trident's staff, then calls forth the prongs at the end of it, pointing them out towards the boy. The boy isn't paying him any heed though, for he instead is taking the time to marvel at the presence of the stone wall beside him. "Look at it, it's fascinating, isn't it? Of course..." He turns around and looks at Gemini, quickly getting a surprised look on his face once he notices the trident. "Whoa! You were certainly quick to whip that baby out, eh? ...As I was saying..." The boy places one hand onto his chest. "I am the one who designed this room to act like that, after all." "Enough talk." Gemini says, ready to get into battle now that the stakes have changed. "Actually, I'd say that I haven't really talked enough yet. So be patient for a few more moments. Besides, I always find that a fight can be a lot more enjoyable if both warriors know a little more about each other."

"See, I'm a bit different from the rest of the warriors guarding this temple. I don't have any 'powers', so to speak. Instead I have used my great intellect to keep up with my allies and overpower my enemies. You remember the Lightning Palace, yes?" Gemini nods his head in response. "All my doing. See, the electricity element is one of the hardest elements to control, due to it's rather unpredictable nature. The Element Overlord had control over it, sure, but he was unable to find a warrior who could control it as well as himself. That is, until he met me." "Wait a minute." The Lieutenant interrupts. "Weren't you just saying that you don't have any powers?" "I will get to that in a moment." The boy states, rubbing his forehead and sighing at Gemini's continuous impatience.

"Anyways...As I was saying before, I'm the man responsible for the creation of the Lightning Palace. At the same time, I'm also the one who created it's inner guardian." "The Djinn was a machine as well?" Gemini asks, finding that fact to be a bit out of a blue considering what was already known. "Puts a new perspective on things, doesn't it?" "So what, you telling me that the inner guardians were all robots?" "No no no no, just the Grass, water and Electric guys. Everyone else was organic." "Not like we ever got to fight the Earth, Ice and Fire guys...Not directly, anyways" Gemini thinks to himself. "Now, back to the subject of just why I can control electricity despite lacking the latent powers necessary to do so." The boy lifts the arm with the bracelet on it up into the air, then takes the hand with the metal nut on it and points it at Gemini. "Pay close attention now, blink and you'll miss the roar of the thunder."

The boy lowers his arm down so it's at length with his chest, then takes the finger with the nut on it and drags it over the ancient symbols on the bracelet. As the two metallic objects connect, the symbols begin to a glow a light-blue color as electricity flows from the bracelet and begins to make it's way up the boy's arm, eventually covering his whole body and releasing a bright light that forces Gemini to cover his eyes in order to avoid being blinded. "Man, how many times have I had to do this now?" He says to himself. When the light fades away, he opens his eyes back up to find the boy is now wearing some mechanical armor. Most of it is colored yellow, with a few black parts and some areas with black stripes on them here and there. There are two wires on the left shoulder that are connected to the back of his helmet, the visor of which is a dark blue color, though it is still clear enough that you can see his eyes through them. He does not seem to be carrying a weapon on him though...

"Interesting armor." Gemini notes. The boy lifts his left hand up and clenches it into the shape of a fist, electricity surging around it as he does so. "Like it? I made it myself. Metal is a great attractor of electricity, so I found a way to store the energy of a lightning storm into my bracelet and thus be able to harness it in this custom made armor. Not only that, but this suit can survive voltage of up to 1.8 million gigawatts!" "And just HOW exactly were you able to summon this armor?" The boy is silent for a few seconds. He never expected Gemini to slyly point out the logical error behind his armor's existence, and as he lowers his hand down to the side of his body, he shrugs his shoulders once again. "Magic." Is the best answer he can come up with. "Magic?" The Lieutenant takes a point to just TRY and comprehend the answer given to him, but when nothing comes to mind he slams his free hand into his face and rubs his forehead with his fingers while breathing a heavy sigh.

"That's the best answer you could come up with?" He asks with honesty. Removing his hand from his face, Gemini spins his trident around in the air before stopping so it's prongs are pointed at the ground. "Well, whatever. Let us never bring this issue up ever again and just begin our battle already!" From underneath the helmet, you can see the boy grinning from ear to ear. "Fair enough..." He says, opening his hand and summoning forth a rifle from out of nowhere. The gun has the same colors as his armor, with the tip of the barrel itself having a dark purple color. Gemini holds his trident out in front of his body, pointing the prongs up towards the ceiling and closing his eyes while placing his other hand onto the middle prong. "I only utter this creed when I fight someone one on one..." He says.

"Sins engulfed by a sea of fire, my trident acts as a beacon of hope for those who seek the truth..." The ground trembles slightly as electricity surges through Gemini's entire body. "Though my heart may be heavy with darkness eternal, I will cast away all of these doubts and push myself towards a better tomorrow! I am Gemini of the Blood Thunder, the advent of your destruction!" The demon Koopa swings his trident against the ground, then holds it horizontally behind his back while charging an electrical spark in his other free hand. "Hear my name and surrender your fate!" The boy takes his gun and cocks it over his right shoulder. "I am Pitori Sparks. Lightning etches itself across the far-plane of both mind and soul, an occurrence that desires to destroy. But in the right hands, it can become an energy source strong enough to overpower anything. I've kept you waiting long enough Gemini of the Blood Thunder. Let us begin our fight now!" Pitori then takes his gun and points it at the Koopa.

As these events were happening, we find Geno standing by himself on the earth side of the room. After both walls had gone up, he takes a look at the boulder that had been launched into the air, having detected some life energy coming from within. "Hmph, how clever of that boy to lead us into a trap..." He whispers to himself. The boulder is spinning around rapidly, but after a few moments it begins to slow down. The warrior prepares himself for battle by placing his arms by the side of his body. "Obviously I'm going to be fighting the guy who controls the Earth element...I just hope he is at least a true, honorable-" The boulder explodes, and a loud, thunderous voice can be heard coming from where it once stood. "CHESTO!" Geno's eyes widen in shock, as a chunk of the boulder flies smack dab into his face. After it bounces off of his hard, rocky head, he stumbles backwards before falling down onto his back, arms outstretched beside his body. After taking a few moments to get a grasp on the situation, Geno blinks a few times and stares blankly at the ceiling. "Me and my big mouth..." He thinks to himself.

The doll lifts himself up off the ground. As he does this he takes a nice long look at the man who emerged from the boulder, who had landed on the ground soon after. A gruff looking, middle-aged man stands before the Star Herald. Wearing a heavy set of samurai of armor on the upper part of his body and a pair of tattered and dirt covered work jeans on his legs, the man wears nothing on his hairy feet, instead preferring to walk around barefooted. His buff arms are resting on top of a weapon that looks like a cross between a hammer and a pick-axe. He has a groomed brown beard that is about six inches in length, which is probably the only part of his body that is actually clean. There are marks of dirt all around his face, and while his grin looks sincere you can see that he is missing a couple of teeth. His hair is long and messy, similar to that of a rednecks' hairstyle. His eyes are brown, and on his left middle finger he can be seen wearing a ring made out of pure granite.

"Well, now that that boy's plan has been put into motion I can finally grind some poor loser into the du-" The man takes another look at Geno, recognizing something oddly familiar about him. After about thirty seconds of constant staring, the man notices a starry aura protruding from the doll's body. "Well I'll be damned, if it isn't little ol' Heartnote!" Geno is surprised when he hears the man say his true name, a fact that causes the doll to take a cautious approach as he says the next few words. "How do you know such information?" He inquires. "You don't recognize me?" Snapping his fingers, the man glances off to the side and a small frown can be seen on his face. "Then again, I guess you had interacted with the Master more than you did the rest of us."

"You...traveled with the Elemental Overlord? That was so long ago though, and you-" "Look like I haven't aged a wink? Yep, there is an explanation as to why I have not...But sadly for you we warriors all promised the Overlord before he died that we would not disclose the truth about our eternal life to anyone." "I can respect your decision, as such I will not pursue the subject of your long lives." The man turns his head back around and his face is once again smiling. "Thank you..." He says in a calm tone. "I must admit, for one who looks unclean, your heart seems to be filled with loyalty and honor. A pure soul, that's a better way of describing you I guess…" Suddenly, the man gets a confused look on his face. "Wait? What do you mean unclean?" Geno closes his eyelids. If he was human this would be the part where a sweatdrop would appear on his forehead. "You got dirt on your face and your hair is...messy."

"Oh, that's all?" The man shrugs his shoulders. "Meh, I'm used to those complaints. They happen every time I go digging underground. As long as my beard remains clean though, I don't have any reason to worry about a few minor dirt specks on my face. Either way..." The man takes his right hand and grasps it around the center of his hammer's rod. Lifting the weaponup into the air as if it was as light a toothpick, he places it behind his neck and grasps the handle with both hands, the pointed ends of the pick-axe portion pointed both up at the ceiling and down towards the ground. "You ready to go then?" He asks. "I'm ready whenever you are…" Geno responds. The man then pushes his feet down against the ground, applying enough force to make the area surrounding his feet crack from the pressure. "I am the unmoving rock, the boulder that refuses to be crushed or ripped to shreds! Try all you might my opponent of mine, but in the end you will fall into a canyon of despair! I am Ezekiel Gaia, the Genesis Samurai of Stone! Come at me now Heartnote!"

On the icy side of the room, once the wall had come down Luigi slipped on the floor and was sent tumbling into the wall head first. As he tries to pry himself free with both hands, he hears a small giggling noise coming from the ceiling. Once back on his feet he rubs his head as it throbs in pain, then he looks towards the ceiling to find a hole where the icicle once stood. From that hole emerges a lady wearing dark blue sandals with small spikes scattered all around the bottom of it and a single light-blue stocking on her right leg. A light-blue silk cloth covers the rest of her lower body, the split part revealing the skin on her thigh. The cloth manages to stay attached to her body due to a smooth ring of ice that's wrapped tightly around her waist. She wears a buttoned sweatshirt on the upper part of her body, the lower part of it tucked gently under her ice ring. There is a diamond ring on her right pinky, and a golden necklace with a single jewel amber placed in the center of it. In any other situation, her cold, pale-green eyes would make her appear to be sad, but instead the smiling expression on her ruby lips makes Luigi feel at peace. Her hair is a bit odd in comparison to the other warriors they had encountered so far. It's an icy-blue color to keep in theme with her element, and it's long enough that it flows halfway down her back, but she wears two hair ties on the back of her head that make the hair somehow stick up to look similar to a couple of snowflakes. On top of all this, she projects a rather motherly vibe from her body, which to Luigi comes off as a sign that this woman is older and more mature than the previous two girl warriors that the group had met.

The lady lands on top of the fallen icicle. With a light tap from her feet, the object begins to crack. She then backflips off of it as it shatters. With bits of ice scattered around on the ground, the only thing remaining from where the icicle once stood is a lance made out of solid, smooth ice with a metal handle at the very top that allows for easy gripping of the weapon. The lady walks up to the lance and plucks it out of the ground, lifting it above her head without any effort at all, despite how heavy said weapon looks to be. Once she's done examining it, she sticks it back into the icy floor beside her, then turns her head to look at the plumber in green. "Welcome to my domain." She says in a pleasant tone.

"You must be the warrior of ice, correct?" Luigi asks, a bit nervous to be talking to such a beautiful looking lady. The lady nods her head slowly. "You are correct in your assumption. Of course, it's not like I tried to hide such a fact from you…" The lady brushes the back of her hair away off to side, her eyes looking off to the left part of the room as a pale blush appears on her face. "What happened to my friends?" Luigi asks. "They are probably fighting my comrades, assuming they weren't already dealt with." "...And I guess I have no choice but to face you if I want to see them again?" The plumber asks nervously. "Oh?" The lady mutters in a surprised tone. "Do you have a problem with fighting me?" Luigi quickly shakes his head back and forth. "No, not at all..." Once he stops shaking, he bites the lower part of his lip and were it not for the cold he would be sweating profusely right about now. "I just have a problem with fighting women in general..." He thinks to himself.

"Well, if you are ready then..." The lady places her hands on her sweatshirt and begins to unbutton it, an action that causes Luigi to become incredibly flustered. "MAMA MIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He exclaims. The plumber's outburst causes the lady to turn her head around and look at him with a rather confused look in her eyes. "Huh? I'm not doing what you think I'm doing, ok?" Letting out a little giggle, the lady blushes once again. "You are a strange little man, green one." She then continues to unbutton her shirt. Once she's done she pulls both of her arms through the sleeves and takes the shirt off, revealing a sleeveless white shrine maiden's shirt underneath. As she wraps her sweatshirt around her waist, one would be able to see that there are bandages covering not just the bottom part of her rather plump chest, but the rest of her mid-region and her back as well. Stretching her slim arms into the air and puffing out her chest, the lady then takes her right hand and grasps the metallic handle of the lance, pulling it right up out of the icy floor once again and holding it behind her back. The ice that makes up the lance itself touches the vulnerable part of her back, and her body shivers in response.

"It feels good you know...The chill of the ice on your body. Some say that the cold is a horrible curse on the earth, but they sometimes seem to forget the fact that without the cold there would be no snow, no white Christmases..." The lady looks at Luigi with puppy dog-like eyes. "And no...penguins..." She says in an innocent, almost childlike tone. "Err...I mean..." She gets a serious look on her face as she prepares to say her creed. "The frostbite of the eternal night is my lance, the shield that shall protect me is the chilling cold of the tundra. Can you have any hope of even touching me knowing full well that your body can shut down in an instant of experiencing the chill of the pale night? I am Cecilia Frost, the Genesis Samurai of Ice. Prepare yourself green one, we shall dance under the full glow of the northern lights."

_And thus, the battles had begun...Though they did not know it, each of three heroes from the Mushroom Kingdom ran at their opponents at the same time. We shall focus on Gemini's battle against Pitori for the time being though... _

Gemini takes his trident and prepares to jab it into the boy's armor, but as the metal tips connect with it the boy vanishes in an instant with only an outline of electricity remaining where he once stood. While the Lieutenant looks on in shock the boy reappears behind the demon Koopa with his gun pointed right at the back of his head. As he gets ready to pull the trigger, Gemini feels the metal barrel touching his skin and with quick reflexes he moves his head to the right before the shot is fired. A golden bullet made out of electricity comes out of the gun and though it fails to clinch the match in Pitori's favor by piercing through Gemini's skull and brain, it does manage to scrape across the demon Koopa's cheek.

Without even flinching, Gemini is quick to apply pressure to the wound to stop excess bleeding by taking his left hand and pressing it against the side of his face. The bullet continues to fly forward, as it does one of the golden panels on the wall pops out and moves downward in order to catch it out of the air. It is revealed that the panel is attached to a cybernetic arm, and when the bullet hits the panel it is promptly absorbed into it. Gemini is able to catch this out of the corner of his eye as he prepares a counter attack, intrigued as to why the panel absorbed the attack.

His feet now sparking with electricity, Gemini holds his trident in both of his hands and backflips into the air. When he is right above Pitori he takes one of his electrically charged feet and thrusts it at the boy's face. In response the boy dispels his rifle, choosing to convert it into electrical energy that surrounds the hand that he had it held in. "Hraaaah!" He grunts, punching upwards to clash his fist with Gemini's foot. As the two forces connect an electrical shockwave bursts from the force of the collision before quickly fading away. Recoiling off of the attack, Gemini somersaults through the air. Before he lands on the ground, he grasps his trident in his right hand and tries to make a quick jab at the boy's visor. But Pitori is wise enough to anticipate such an attack and blocks the attack by raising his other arm. Due to Gemini landing on the ground at the same time as his attack connected, he is knocked back a few inches. The demon Koopa pulls his trident back and spins it around over his head, afterwards slamming the bottom part of it down onto the ground. He then removes his left hand from his face, revealing that the bleeding wound has already dried up, though some of the blood that dripped out can be seen on the palm of his hand.

"I see, so that suit of yours enhances your reflexes to be as swift as a lightning bolt." Gemini notes. Pitori lowers his arm down to the side of his body, as he does a crack appears on the armor, showing that the Koopa's trident strike did manage to damage it after all. "Not bad, you are quite perceptive." The boy says with an abundance of praise. Gemini closes his eyelids, suspecting that something is amiss. The boy's body vanishes with an outline of electricity surrounding where he once was, just like before. He then reappears in the air behind Gemini, hovering in place using rockets on the bottom of his feet. While he's got the demon Koopa in his sights, Pitori pulls the trigger on his respawned rifle and this time fires a black electricity bullet at Gemini's head. The demon Koopa looks over his shoulder, a cocky grin now on his face.

Before the bullet can strike through his skull, a pair of golden metallic demon wings appear on Gemini's back and promptly swats away the bullet like it was nothing more than a fly in the air. The flung away bullet flies into one of the black metal panels on the wall and is absorbed, just like the golden bullet from earlier. "What?" Pitori says in shock. As the demonic wings flap slowly, metal goop flows out of Gemini's back and takes the form of his demon helmet once it reaches his head. "You like surprises? Well prepare to be shocked..." Gemini says in a cold tone. The demon Koopa turns around and grasps his trident tightly in his right hand, rings of black electricity surging up around his body as the ground begins to tremble once again. "Your little mirage trick won't work again...Now let us begin the true fight, shall we?" As Gemini finishes talking. Pitori grits his teeth and growls to himself...

_Geno vs. Ezekiel Gaia_

Geno decides to make the first move by running at his opponent; however, it seems as though Ezekiel was ready for such an assault. Gripping his hammer in both hands, he swings it over his head and attempts to make a pancake out of the star herald's wooden body. Luckily, the doll is able to jump out of the way just before the pick-axe portion plunges into the rocky ground below his feet. After a quick roll on the ground he gets back on his feet and points his right fist at Ezekiel, as it flips up to reveal a small cannon underneath, holy energy being seen charging in the center of it. "Geno Be-" A boulder smashes into his face before he can fire his attack, the giant rock having come from Ezekiel ripping part of the ground up with his pick-axe and flinging it at the star herald. Unable to stop the charging of his beam attack despite being interrupted, a small blue energy beam emerges from the cannon and flies up towards the ceiling.

The boulder drags Geno through the air and slams him right into the rock wall, and at the same time the beam finally collides with the ceiling. The resulting explosion knocks loose a couple of rocky stalagmites. After a few seconds of trembling they fall towards the ground. One hits the ground and shatters into microscopic bits, the other one is grabbed out of the air by Ezekiel. Due to the sharp object's small size, he decides to quickly use the one he as a toothpick in order to pick out a bit of steak that is stuck between his two front teeth. As he does this, the boulder keeping Geno's head pressed against the wall falls to the ground and shatters due to how delicate it's structure is. The star herald opens his eyes, blinking a few times to adjust his rather shaky vision. Upon regaining the full use of his eyes, the sight of Ezekiel picking his teeth causes Geno to close his eyelids slightly in disgust.

"That doesn't seem like a very sanitary thing to do..." Geno notes as he dislodges his back from the wall. After the steak bit is picked out, Ezekiel stares at the stalagmite for a brief moment before tossing it over his shoulder. "Meh, it doesn't matter really. Due to my association with the earth, I am unable to be infected by any sort of bacterial based diseases. Thank goodness for that too, cause I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't able to get down n' dirty whenever I wanted to." The man then pulls his head back and has a whole-hearted laugh at himself. When he lowers his head back down, he finds that Geno has folded back one of the fingers on his left hand, revealing a small gun barrel resting beneath it. A few round black bullets are shot out of the barrel, but Ezekiel does not feel threatened by them, instead he finds himself wanting to laugh at Geno's feeble attack.

"'Oy, you must've hit your head harder than I thought there lad. I expected something a little more-" The man stops talking once he sees Geno rushing at him once again. "Trying the same tactic again lad? I know the body you inhabit is made of wood and all, but I never expected one trained by the Star Spirits to be so hard-headed." After tanking the doll's bullets with his armor, Ezekiel raises his hammer above his head and prepares to slam it down onto the star herald. Not one to repeat the same move twice, Geno decides to mix things up a bit in his assault this time around. Aiming his fist upwards so it's pointed over the man's head, he detaches it from his arm and watches as it brushes past the man's hair. Then, he bends down and slides along the rocky ground, friction causing his wooden behind to be scraped as he flies in-between Ezekiel's legs, just barely managing to avoid the hammer at the same time. When the fist Geno fired has gone far enough through the air it flips itself around and begins to charge a rainbow colored energy disc in between the grip of it's fingers. Once he's done sliding along the ground the doll gets up on his feet and with great speed leaps into the air in order to re-attach his fist to his body. While he rises into the air Ezekiel pulls another chunk of rock out of the ground, this chunk being much bigger than the one he pulled out before. He then quickly turns his body around and prepares to fling the newly made boulder at Geno, but it is already too late. Now that his fist has reunited with the rest of his body and the energy disc has been charged to it's full power, the doll tosses it towards Ezekiel with a flick of the wrist. As the Geno Whirl flies through the air, it stays true to it's name by making a whirling noise as it travels. Upon making contact with the boulder it cuts it in half with ease, the bottom half falling to the ground shortly afterwards due to gravity taking hold, and the upper half only managing to brush along the top of Geno's blue cap. Seeing as the energy disc is swiftly approaching him, Ezekiel makes a wise move by ducking backwards so his head doesn't end up getting separated from the rest of his body. But there is one thing he didn't account for, and that is the fact that his long beard is now floating in the air, the tip of it now right in front of the path that the Geno Whirl is flying along.

The energy disc swiftly meets it's target, cutting through the tip of the beard with an even greater ease than with the boulder. Then it continues to fly until it hits the ground and turns to dust on command. Geno lands on the ground and looks at his opponent who is still bent backwards. "Really now, it seems a bit ironic for the Earth warrior to call ME hard-headed." The doll says with a rebellious yet cocky tone, adding a little scoff at the end of his sentence for good measure. "You..." The man growls, and his grip on his hammer tightens to the point that you can see his blood veins popping out from underneath his skin. He quickly lifts his head back up, and boy does he look pissed. His eyes are both wide open and bloodshot, with his face turning a dark red color. In his head images are flashing through his mind about the years he's spent keeping his beard clean, shiny and long, and now that Geno has ruined it by cutting a little section of it off, he is PISSED. OFF. "YOU RUINED MY BEARD!" His violent sounding scream echoes throughout the room, his body extruding a serious amount of energy that is enough to ruffle Geno's cape with a heavy breeze. His body mass increases as he steadily becomes angrier, and as his feet continue to press down against the ground the entire area begins to tremble as if it were in fear of Ezekiel's might. The star herald can only look on with a rather worried expression on his face. "This isn't good..." He mumbles to himself...

_Luigi vs. Cecilia Frost_

Unlike his other two comrades, Luigi opts not to charge at his opponent right away. Instead he activates his Thunderhand and taps down onto the icy floor, sending electricity flowing through the ground at Cecilia's general direction. It's a simple enough attack for the ice lady to dodge, as she skates off to the right to get out of the way. However, Luigi's electricity is not so easily dodged, as it is homing in on Cecilia. As she moves, so does the attack itself. Now aware of this factor, the lady takes it upon herself to skate towards the nearby wall. Once she is about to hit it she lines her lance up horizontally beside her face and using all of her might she tosses it into the side of the wall, where it sticks in without any difficulty. She then jumps into the air and lands on the metal handle of the lance, using it as a sort of springboard in order to backflip off of it and somersault through the air until she flies over Luigi and lands right behind him. As for the electricity, it crawls up the wall and flows through the lance until it is absorbed into the metallic handle.

Luigi, who has become completely flabbergasted by what just happened, turns around and stares at Cecilia with his eyes wide open, jaw dropped down, and an all-around expression of disbelief on his face. The lady stands up and brushes aside a bit of hair that was floating in front of her left eye, and with a smile on her face her cheeks glow a light-red color as she lets out another giggle. "You surprised? I used to be an acrobat back in the day, before I met my Master and all." Luigi snaps out of his moment of disbelief and realizes that the lady was now defenseless without her lance. Taking advantage of this, the man in green closes all but the middle and pointer finger into his palm and charges electricity at the tips. He then runs over to Cecilia and attempts to jab his fingers at her gut, but the woman swiftly summons a baton made out of ice with ruby orbs on the top and bottom of it and swings it out in front of her body to smack Luigi's hand away.

A powerful blow, Luigi can feel the bones in his two fingers cracking slightly after the baton hit them. With the plumber now distracted by the pain in his hand, Cecilia flips her baton into the air and reaches out with her left hand to grab onto Luigi's left elbow. Using most of her might to lift the defenseless plumber over her head, she then proceeds to toss him at one of the nearby walls. As he flies through the air Cecilia lifts her left hand up in order to catch her falling baton right out of the air. Before the man in green hits the wall, he opens his eyes and gets a determined look on his face. Turning himself around mid-air so his feet are pointed towards the wall, Luigi applies press to the wall and rebounds off of it so he flies diagonally into the air with great speeds.

"Huh?" Cecilia says to herself as Luigi's body casts a light shadow over her own while he flies over her head. Pointing his pointer finger down towards the ground while his thumb is held up high and the rest of the fingers pulled into the palm of his hand, Luigi charges electricity on the tip of the finger and fires a bolt of lightning downward. Due to the bolt's speed, Cecilia doesn't have enough time to get out of the way as it strikes her right on the top of her head. Despite about hundreds, maybe thousands of volts flowing through her body, she stays motionless, not even letting out a painful scream. At the exact moment that Luigi lands back on the ground, the electricity wears off. The plumber turns around in order to see how much damage he's caused, only for Cecilia's baton to smack him right in the forehead and knock him onto his back. The baton itself bounces back into it's owner's hand, where she then tucks it away into the back of her shirt. Luigi lifts himself up off the ground and rubs his now throbbing head with his right hand.

"How did you..." As Luigi questions the improbable lack of damage on her body, Cecilia holds her right hand out towards the wall that her lance is still stuck in. The lance starts wobbling in place in order to free itself from the wall, and after a while all it takes is a snap of the fingers to send the lance flying back into her hand. "How did I survive your attack without being damaged? Simple, I cannot be affected by such low amounts of electricity." She answers in a serious tone. Something didn't feel right, Luigi thought back to earlier where Cecilia tried her hardest in order to avoid his homing thunderhand. "So why even bother to dodge my first attack in that case?" Luigi asks. "I dodged your attack instead of taking it head on because I wanted to see if you would try to follow up with some other technique, but instead you did nothing but stand around while your electricity followed me. It was only when your move was thwarted that you tried to jab me with your electrically charged fingers. It was then that I realized that all your attacks are based around many variations of the Thunderhand technique that were passed down to you by the natives of the Oho Oasis. I'm right, aren't I?"

Luigi chose to remain silent. In the few minutes that they had been battling, Cecilia had already figured out part of his battle style. Sure it was true that all of his attacks so far were based around the Thunderhand, but if it wasn't for the fact that he feared getting impaled by the lance that she was holding, he would be using more physical attacks against her. Heck, that's pretty much why he used the thunder jab earlier, because he didn't have to worry about the lance at the time. Luckily for the man in green though, it seems as though Cecilia hadn't caught on to that yet. "I'll take your silence as a sign that my theory holds true..." The lady closes her left hand into a fist and holds it out in front of her chest. "Fear not, your look of surprise is understandable. I would be surprised to, if I had to face the smartest and third strongest member of the Genesis Samurais."

"T-t-t-third strongest?" Luigi says with a stutter. In his mind he thought to himself, "But wait a minute, this lady is the second-to-last warrior, so does that mean th-" "If you are thinking about how my claim of strength makes no sense considering how I am the last warrior before our Leader, then allow me to explain our power hierarchy to you." Cecilia says, interrupting Luigi's train of thought in an instant. "Our Leader is the strongest out of all of us, Darnia Stratos, the Genesis Samurai of Wind, is the second strongest. I am the third strongest, the Genesis Samurai of Stone, Ezekiel Gaia, is the fourth strongest, and all of the kid members, Acia Rose, Tina Aqua, and Pitori Sparks, the Genesis Samurais of Grass, Water, and Electricity respectively, are all the same as far as strength goes, but they are the weakest out of the entire the group due to their young age..." After she is done talking, Cecilia moves her lance along the ground, the tip of it scraping against the icy floor as she does so. "Now, I've said enough. Let us continue our fight..." It is at this time that Luigi decides that now is the time to get over his rather silly fear and show this lady just why he is called the "Green Thunder"...

_Gemini vs. Pitori Sparks (Part 2):_

"What do you mean my mirage trick won't work again?" Pitori asks. "I mean what I say, that it just plain won't work again. You might want to consider modifying your armor a little more so you can hear people better." Gemini responds back while tapping the left side of his head in a mocking manner. "Well fine then..." The boy snaps his fingers, the sounds of which cause the top of his shoulder armor to open up. A couple of laser turrets pop out and lock on to Gemini's general position. Laser beams fire almost instantaneously at Gemini, but his quick reflexes allows him to dodge both shots with ease. While the Lieutenant spends his time dodging the lasers, he fails to notice one of the black and one of the golden panels popping out of the wall behind him. The bullets that Pitori fired earlier reappear in the center of both panels and are immediately shot out at Gemini once they fully spawn.

As Gemini jumps into the air to avoid two laser beams that were aimed at his legs, the bullets make contact with his now vulnerable backside. "Gack!" He exclaims. Though the bullets do not penetrate his flesh, they instead dissolve and the electricity that was packed inside spreads into his wings. In an instant Gemini is unable to feel anything on his back, the wings having now become numb and paralyzed by the bullets. Before he can get a grasp on what just happened, Pitori's laser turrets manage to connect with their target, delivering a powerful blow into Gemini's gut and sending him flying backwards into one of the metal walls. As the demon Koopa slides down the wall, he weakly opens his eyes up and notices one of the golden panels retracting into the wall. Flashing back to an earlier part of the battle, he remembers how one of the bullets fired from Pitori's rifle was absorbed into one of the golden walls on the panel.

"I see...So the panels absorb all electricity that has the same color as it does..." Gemini thinks to himself. Once he lands on the ground he stares at Pitori as he slowly approaches him. "Perhaps I can use that to my advantage...Seeing as I am now unable to fly due his bullets disabling my wings..." In a moment of quick thinking, Gemini decides to feign weakness and leans his head forward, pretending to pant heavily while holding one hand against the wall and slowly walking to the right, where the closest black panel can be found. "Not...bad...That was a clever trick with the bullets there..." Gemini says. Though his weakened state is nothing more than a lie, his compliment towards his opponent is entirely truthful. "Why thank you." Pitori says, taking a moment to bask in the glory of what he assumes to be his approaching victory. Gemini fully closes his eyelids, sighing quietly to himself at the same time. "The kid may be smart...but he still has the air of an arrogant adolescent surrounding him..." He thinks to himself.

Now halfway between where he once stood and one of the black panels, the Koopa continues to try and think of ways to stall for time. "And that armor of yours...what exactly did you fire out of those turrets of yours?" He asks. "Ionic energy." Pitori quickly responds, folding his arms in front of his chest and tapping his foot on the ground as if he was on the verge of a realization. "Hah...the Commander uses the same kind of energy for his beam based weaponry..." Gemini is only a few feet away from the black panel, but it's at this time that Pitori has seemingly figured the demon Koopa out. Aiming his laser turrets so they are pointed directly at the demon Koopa's head, Pitori also dispels his rifle, wrongfully assuming that he won't need it anymore. "Niiiiice try there buddy. You were trying to distract me so you could get a quick breather in and regain your stamina back, weren't you?"

"Yep..." Gemini says. With his hand now laid against the black panel, he summons black electricity into his palm so Pitori doesn't realize what he's up to. Once the demon Koopa feels that he has put enough of his energy into the panel, he lifts his head up proudly and spins his trident around in the air. "You got me, that's what my plan was the entire time. But I'm feeling better now, save for the wings of course, so let's pick up where we left off, ok?" "With pleasure." Pitori takes his rifle and fires three black bullets out of it. The Koopa somersaults to the left in order to avoid them, and they are absorbed by the black panel behind him. While the demon Koopa is dodging, the laser turrets fire two beams straight at the location that he will end up at once his somersault is finished. Gemini is able to get on his feet just in time to swing his trident in order to block and deflect both beams away from his body. "Not bad." Pitori comments.

"I do admit that while he didn't really damage me when those beams hit my gut earlier, the fact that he put my wings out of commission is a huge handicap against me..." Gemini grimaces as he thinks to himself. "Hmm?" The demon Koopa notices something suspicious going on around Pitori's body. It doesn't take long for him to realize that the boy is going to try and use his doppelganger technique again. Not wasting any time, Gemini runs at Pitori with his trident held behind his back. "Let's end this!" He exclaims. With a quick horizontal slash of his trident, he manages to cut through the center of Pitori's body. As expected though, it was not the real boy, and after the electric outline vanishes Gemini looks up to see Pitori floating in the air with an overabundant amount of electricity tightly compacted into a miniature blue, glass-like sphere. He is barely able to keep the energy packed in the palm of his hand, as lightning bolts pop out of it frequently. Pitori is protected by his armor, but Gemini has to jump out of the way to avoid one of the stray bolts that so happened to fly his way.

"Are you seriously planning on unleashing that? It could decimate this entire area!" Gemini yells out, trying his hardest to warn Pitori before he recklessly fires his attack. "I see no danger. The rocky wall prevents the others from getting hurt, and my armor ensures that I won't get hurt either." It's hard to see, but Gemini notices the smug expression on Pitori's face as the boy folds his arm behind his back and prepares to fling his attack at him. Gemini holds his hands out in front of his chest and wiggles his fingers a few times as black lightning surges between each one. "I got to somehow overpower his technique...Otherwise I'm done for!" Gemini clenches his teeth and starts to build up energy between both hands. "Too late! Aegis Collapser!" Upon yelling out the name of his attack, Pitori uses all of his might to fling the orb straight towards the Lieutenant. Having almost fully charged his attack as well, Gemini decides to take a risk in order to ensure his success. "I shouldn't have to use too much..." By converting a bit of blood from his body into electricity, Gemini not only added more power into his attack, but he has also caused the orb to have a dark red glow surrounding it.

"HRAAAAAAHHHH!" The demon Koopa exclaims with all of his might as a massive black and red lightning beam is fired out of the orb between his hands. Both the blue sphere and the black beam collide in the center of the room soon afterwards, their meeting sending out three electric shockwaves one after another that are hot enough to melt through the walls surrounding them, save for the rock wall, which continues to maintain it's perfect defense. Both attacks are equal in strength, though there are brief moments where one will push itself closer to it's desired target, only for it to fall back just a moment afterwards. "Dead even...I guess I have no choice then!" Gemini gets a powerful look of determination on his face, and converts a little bit more of his blood into electricity to give his beam the final push it needs to overcome the Aegis Collapser. Luckily for him, this last move of his proves to be successful, and the beam pushes through the blue orb, it's power dissolving it into nothingness before continuing to move forward and burn through the metallic ceiling as if it were butter. It can only be assumed that the beam continued onward until it cut through the walls outside of the temple and vanished into the foggy sky.

With the attack now over with, Gemini is now panting heavily, this time around though he's not faking it. He places one hand on his chest, as his heart was now beating rapidly due to the amount of blood that was now gone from his body. Pitori lands on the ground, rifle clenched tightly in his right hand. He approaches his opponent and holds his weapon up in front of his chest plate. "You're not tricking me this time, I can tell that you are seriously low on energy. Shame, using attacks that drain my armor's energy does nothing to affect me directly." Though the rifle was aimed at the demon Koopa, Gemini knew that the boy wasn't going to attack him with that. Instead, he would re-fire the black bullets that were absorbed into the black panel from earlier.

"Honestly...This is my last hope..." The demon Koopa thinks to himself. The black panel comes out of the wall, and at first the black bullets are seen reforming out of it, but then they unexpectedly vanish a matter which greatly surprises Pitori. "What is the meaning of this?" He yells out. He'll wish that he wouldn't have received an answer soon enough though, as the black panel begins to overload, the entire area being covered up by the black electricity that Gemini had poured into it earlier. The boy quickly turns his attention towards the demon Koopa, realizing now what his true intentions were when he faked being weakened. "Hey...what can I say..." Gemini shrugs. "I'm just that cool of a guy." Before the black panel explodes, it fires out a huge beam of black electricity that is roughly the size of the object it emerged from. The demon Koopa is quick to jump out of the way as the beam flies past him and rams right through Pitori's armor. It is at first able to withstand the brunt of the beam's onslaught, but even it cannot keep it up for long, and once the beam has disappeared the armor manually shuts down in order to recharge, leaving Pitori stuck in his normal, vulnerable human form.

The boy falls to his knees and looks at his hands in disbelief. "I lost...What is the point of my knowledge...if it only turns out to be useless?" Gemini rolls his eyes around, then with the remaining energy he has left, he walks over to the boy and extends his right hand out while keeping his left one tucked behind his back. He also reverts back to his normal form. "Kid, you may have lost, but at the same time I think you won our battle." Pitori looks Gemini straight in the eyes, it seems a though he is about to break down in tears. "What...How so?" He asks. "It wasn't just a coincidence that we fought on the battlefield this day. Come with me, join the M.S.I., and I can assure you that you'll be able to use your genius for the greater good of this world. After all, it would be better than staying in this temple forever, right?" Pitori thinks about Gemini's offer for a moment...A really, really brief moment, but a moment nonetheless. "OK!" He exclaims in a cheerful tone, proceeding to stand up on his own two feet afterwards and shake Gemini's hand. "That was...rather quick, but alright then! I'll talk it over with the Commander after this whole ordeal is all said and done...First off though, how do we get out of here?" The Lieutenant looks around the room. Melted bits of metal drip down the from ceiling and walls, but the demon Koopa cannot seem to find an exit in sight. "We'll have to wait until the other two battles are done. Of course, I fear for your wooden friend..." Gemini turns his head to look at Pitori with a somewhat concerned look on his face. "How come?" He asks. The boy remains silent, closing his eyes and lowering his head to mimic Gemini's feelings of concern...

_Geno vs. Ezekiel Gaia (Part 2):_

Now forced to face down the powerful might of the enraged Ezekiel, Geno wastes no time in charging up another Geno Whirl in his right hand. "You won't pull that off twice!" The man exclaims. Without even making a move, Ezekiel forces the ground to violently tremble below Geno's feet, causing him to lose his balance and thus lose the focus he had in charging his attack. As the energy dispels from his hand the doll falls onto the ground face first. The trembling dies down, but that's not enough to ease the star herald's mind. He quickly lifts his head up, only to see Ezekiel rushing at him while covered in a thick brown aura. His hammer is held diagonally, the floor being greatly torn up due to the sheer force put into his movement. "Oh cr-" Geno's eyes widen, but he cannot finish his sentence in time as his face promptly meets the side of the hammer. His entire body now flipped around, the area below his neck is being dragged along the ground below the hammer, while his head is forced to be rammed through the floor against his will. All the star herald can do at this point is close his eyes and pray that he will live through this.

After a certain point, Ezekiel lifts his hammer out of the ground and swings Geno's body away towards the nearby wall. Smashing into it with a power equivalent to that of a small meteorite, the doll's impact with the it creates a massive crater that is big enough for the lower part of it to only be one inch away from the top of the doorway out of there. "GET BACK HERE!" Ezekiel holds his left hand up into the air and quickly clenches it into a fist. Geno doesn't even have enough time to blink before the rocks behind him explode and send him flying back towards the earth warrior. This was just what the star herald wanted though. Quickly thrusting his eyelids open, Geno holds his left hand out in front of his chest and charges up another Geno Whirl, this time hoping to use it in order to cut Ezekiel's hand.

The moment is about to arrive, as Geno is only one foot away from the man's bulky hand. But then comes the surprise, as the energy disc touches the skin of Ezekiel's hand...And shatters instantly. "What?" Geno thinks to himself. The man grabs onto the star herald's head and slams him down onto the ground with so much force that it shakes the very room with the same power as that of a magnitude 6 Earthquake. It's a miracle that the walls have still managed to hold up at this point. Not only that, but the ground is no longer flat, the entire surface having now been cracked and uplifted in multiple locations around the room thanks to the plates being disrupted. As the dust settles, Ezekiel has now calmed down and quietly turns around, leaving Geno lying on the ground in a near-death state. "I'm sorry old friend, but our battle is through now..." The man sounds rather sorrowful as he talks, like he regretted doing what he had to do.

"What...are you...talking about?" Ezekiel peeks over his shoulder to see Geno barely managing to lift himself up off the ground. "This body can take anything you wish to toss at it..." "But can your true form, the star that rests inside your body, continue to hold up against my might?" "Well..." Geno holds his right arm out in front of his body, and places his left arm directly over it. "Let's continue our fight and see if your question holds true." Seven different colored lights float around the star herald's body and fuse with him soon after. His body emits a powerful, radiant, golden glow. He also seems to have been rejuvenated on top of that as well. "Geno Boost EX. This is my last technique. If I cannot beat you before time runs out, then I lose. No second chances, 1-ups, or anything of the sort to allow me to keep up the fight."

"Very well then..." Ezekiel tosses his hammer off to the side and cracks his knuckles. The hammer becomes stuck between two rocky plates, but that is irrelevant. The man turns himself around and lowers his head in order to stare his opponent straight in the eyes. "It's the least I can do after my earlier rampage." He says in an honorable tone. After a few seconds of staring each other down, Geno makes the first move by jumping at his opponent and delivering a barrage of punches that are aimed at his face. Ezekiel raises an arm to block all the punches, then counters with one of his own. But the doll counters the counters by clashing one of his fists with Ezekiel's, the force of both punches colliding sending a shockwave of air flying through the room that blows dust up off the ground to cover the two of them completely. From the looks of their shadows that loom in the veil of the dust clouds, the two fighters can be seen rapidly punching each without showing any signs of slowing down.

Then the dust settles, and Geno manages to take advantage of an opening in Ezekiel's defenses by ejecting one of his fists from his arm in order to deliver a powerful blow to the man's jaw. The impact of said fist causes Ezekiel to take a few steps back via recoil. The star herald lands on the ground and then jumps back up again in order to uppercut Ezekiel's jaw while the man is still dazed. He was a little too late though, as the is not only able to recover, but he is able to reposition himself and bend his body forward in order to slam his head down onto Geno's own. After being knocked back onto the ground, Ezekiel picks him up off the ground and flings him up into the air without even trying. Making a mighty leap upwards, the man wraps his both of his beefy hands around Geno's entire body before flipping himself around so his belly is facing down towards the ground. He then begins to plummet downward at great speeds. It doesn't take long after that for him to make contact with the ground, at which point his powerful impact is enough to decimate all the rocks within a twenty foot radius. ...At least, any rocks that weren't already blown to bits when he slammed Geno's face into the ground earlier.

Due to his armor protecting him, Ezekiel is able to stand up unscathed. Dusting his hands off, the man jumps backwards the moment he sees Geno moving again. At this point he is surprised to see him still standing, let alone not even showing weakness like he should be. "That would've ended me...But Geno Boost EX greatly increased my defenses, along with my speed, strength..." Geno holds his left arm out in front of his body and flips his hand up to reveal the cannon underneath. "And magic..." After saying the last word, a massive blue, star-powered energy beam is fired out of the tip of the cannon. The beam engulfs Ezekiel's body completely, and the star warrior feels as though he has won. That is, until the man pushes himself right through the beam shoulder first and kicks Geno in the face, which sends him flying back towards the crater that his body had made earlier. Not fazed in the slightest, the doll flips himself back around and flips up his other hand to reveal another cannon underneath it. Firing a multitude of star shaped bullets out of both hands, the star herald attempts to bombard Ezekiel as the man runs across the torn up battlefield.

The bulky man manages to dodge all the bullets with ease, all the while clenching his right hand into the shape of a fist and holding onto his right arm with his left hand, getting ready to leap into the air in order to finish the battle with one final punch. Geno places his hands back into their normal position and mimics the actions that Ezekiel has just done, his feet now pressed against the wall behind him. Bouncing off the wall, the doll rockets through the air towards Ezekiel, who has now leapt into the air to meet his opponent's final attack head-on. Both fighters are fully determined, not a single thought of backing down passing through their mind as they get ever so closer to each other. Then comes the moment of glory, as both fighters launch their punches at the exact same time. Both seem to connect, but the effects that they had on each other are not seen at the moment, and they pass by one another without even exchanging a single word. Then they land on the ground, and Geno's golden aura fades away, leaving him in his weakened state once more. He kneels on the ground, and glances over his shoulder to see Ezekiel standing tall and proud. "I guess...You won." The star herald says quietly.

A quick view of Ezekiel reveals that a hole has been punched into his armor, and he is seen bleeding from the gut area. The man places his right hand onto his gut, and stares solemnly at the crater he made earlier. "Let's...call it a draw...Ugh..." Succumbing to his wound, Ezekiel falls on his knees and begins to cough up blood. "Still though, that was the most fun I've ever had in a couple thousand years...Even if you do not remember me, I thank you for the battle...My old friend..." With his energy now low, the rocky wall crumbles apart in an instant, connecting this side with that of the metallic one. Pitori and Gemini notice Geno and Ezekiel, and the two of them rush over to their respective comrades in order to check up on them. "Geno, you ok?" Gemini asks. Weakly turning his head around, the star herald finds that his vision is a little blurred, but he is still able to recognize his friend's tone of voice, and swiftly answers him. "Yeah...A little beat up, but I'm alive..." The two of them then focus their attention onto the wall of ice that is still standing, and begin to wonder if Luigi is faring well in his battle...

_Luigi vs. Cecilia Frost (Part 2):_

"It's your move, green one." Cecilia says. Luigi knows that the lady is trying to lure him in so she can strike him with her lance, but does he really have an option at this point if his basic lightning based moves won't be effective against her? He realized that there was only one move in his entire arsenal that would allow him to pull of a decisive victory, and that was his Super Conductor Punch. But would he be able to close the distance between the two of them in order to pull it off? As he pondered his next move, Cecilia tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. It didn't take long for Luigi to come up with a plan, but he needed to work fast in order to get things done. "Ok, I'm a-ready." The man in green takes his right hand and makes a pistol shape with his fingers. He then sends a small bolt of electricity out from the tip of his pointer finger. Cecilia swats it away with her lance without even paying attention to it.

"Seriously?" The lady says. "Blow, Solemn the Icy Wind." Waving her free hand out to the side, the air becomes even more frigid, as a light breeze travels throughout the room. Luigi suddenly finds himself feeling very cold, as he can now see his own breath coming out of his mouth. "I hope this motivates you..." Cecilia holds her lance up over her head. "TO FIGHT HARDER!" By swinging her lance with a great amount of force put into it, the lady is propelled forward along the icy floor, her lance now positioned beside her chest. Luigi tumbles out of the way in order to avoid being impaled, but by allowing parts of his skin to make contact with the ground below his body temperature decreases even further.

He isn't even able to catch his breath upon standing up, as Cecilia is seen charging at him once again. This time around though Luigi is wise enough to jump out of the way instead of risking his body becoming completely frozen due to rolling on the ground. The lady tries twice more to impale the man in green, but when both attempts fail she pulls her lance away and forces herself to stop skidding by rubbing the back of her heels against the ground. But during the period of time where she is trying to stop, Luigi can be seen bending down with his arms pressed against his chest. Once he's built up enough energy, Luigi releases it by flying through the air like a missile. But it seems as though he went too far with the energy charge, as a burst of fire appears behind his body as he's sent rocketing towards Cecilia. "MAMA MIA!" He exclaims, his eyes forced to produce tears due to the speeds that he is moving at, even though they become frozen not a moment afterwards.

Though the lady wonders why the man in green is screaming out, she is unable to turn around in time as Luigi proceeds to slam head first into her back. Already a powerful enough of a blow, the fact that Cecilia has her baton tucked into her back causes it to be pressed against her spinal region by Luigi's Green Missile. Her body now bent forward and her eyes widened in pain, the lady is sent flying forward into the closest wall of ice, upon impacting with it her lance is dislodged from the grip of her hand. Luigi falls onto the ground, but works fast in order to get himself back on his feet in time. Looking out in front of him after adjusting his hat a bit, the man in green sees that Cecilia's body has cracked the wall slightly after being knocked into it. "Guess I didn't need to use it after all..." The man in green thinks to himself. But as he begins to turn around he can hear the lady groan.

A quick glance over his shoulder allows Luigi to see Cecilia pulling herself free from the wall. After landing gently on the ground, she places both of her arms behind her back and folds backwards, a cracking noise can then be heard coming from her spine. "Ah...much better." She says. Turning to the right, Cecilia bends down and picks her lance up off the ground. Luigi is expecting her to turn around any moment now with an angry look in her eyes. His body shivers at that very thought, though he also figures that he may be shivering due to the cold. Instead, Cecilia turns around...And has that motherly smile on her face once again. "Thank you for doing that, I was getting a bit reckless for a moment there." Luigi's jaw drops, as his eyes fold back into his head due to the sheer feeling of disbelief that he is going through at this moment. "Is this lady even human?" He thinks to himself.

"But still, that move of yours was a rather refreshing change of pace from your Thunderhand spam...Now I know that you got some plain old physical moves in your arsenal as well as your Thunderhand variants." Luigi gulped. Those words she spoke confirmed it for him. He needed to use the SCP...It was now, or never. Not even giving a second thought about it, Luigi rushes towards Cecilia. "Nice try." She says. With a snap of the fingers, icicles of many sizes begin to erupt from all around the floor, forcing Luigi to weave and dodge quickly in order to avoid them. Just as he gets close, an icicle pops up and not only cuts through his left sleeve, but manages to draw blood by cutting through the skin as well. Despite grimacing at the pain he was just dealt, he continues to run forward. More icicles block his path, and even more continue to damage him in various locations around his body.

Just a few feet away from Cecilia, Luigi suddenly starts to have recollections of days from his past. He remembers the years spent playing with his brother, the day where he got to be the hero by saving Mario from King Boo, his recent meetings with Daisy, and finally he thinks back to the last words that he told his brother today. _"Then we will be able to handle whatever they decide to toss our way bro." _After this, he comes face to face with the icy lady herself. "HERE WE GOOOOOOOO!" Luigi exclaims with incredible vigor. The lady holds her lance out in order to impale Luigi before he can touch her. The man in green does something completely unexpected though. He turns sideways so the only thing that will be touched by the lance is the already damaged skin on his left arm. "What?" Cecilia shouts out, a nervous sweat developing on her forehead as Luigi is almost directly in front of her face. His blood-dripped wound rubs up against the lance, dripping it onto it's formerly shiny exterior.

Cecilia sees only one option left of stopping Luigi, but due to her intense bout of nervousness, she ends up hesitating long enough for the man in green to do his thing. "ABSOLU-" Before she can cast her spell, Luigi delivers a powerful blow to her gut with his right hand. "SUPER CONDUCTOR PUNCH!" Luigi exclaims with all of his might. From out of nowhere a powerful lightning bolt is cast down from the ceiling and smites both warriors, as Luigi was unable to get out of the way of his own attack in time. Due to being weakened by the punch, the icy lady finds the lightning to be more painful than she expected, letting out a blood-curling scream as it continues to damage her. The man in green just stays quiet, satisfied with the things he had accomplished in his life, he closes his eyes to brave the last bits of his attack.

Once the move is about to end, the ice wall shatters into dust and blows throughout the rocky and metallic sides of the room. The lightning dies down, and now both warrior's bodies have smoke coming out of them. Cecilia drops her lance, and along with Luigi they both fall flat on the floor, though the lady ends up resting down on top of Luigi's back, her chest placed directly on top of the man in green's head. Upon seeing the ice wall's collapse, Gemini rushes over to that side of the room and checks both warriors for any signs of life. He is worried for a moment, hoping that neither of them were dead. His prayers were answered though, as he is able to detect a feint pulse coming from their arms after a few seconds had passed. "Whew...That was a close one..." Pitori runs over and offers to help Gemini carry the fallen Cecilia over to the earth side so they can warm them both up safely. The demon Koopa agrees, and promptly tosses the fallen Luigi onto his shoulder and carries him back to the earth side of the room.

Pitori lays Cecilia onto the ground, and places one of his hands behind her head. He tries hard not to cry, praying deep down in his mind for her to get better quickly. Like Gemini his prayers are answered, and the lady slowly begins to open her eyelids. She turns her head to stare at the young boy, a motherly smile appearing on her face. Pitori lets out a little sniffle. Unable to contain the great joy that he is feeling, the boy lifts Cecilia's upper body up off the ground and wraps his arms around her neck in order to give her a nice big hug. The lady is quite surprised by the boy's sudden showing of love, but at the same time she welcomes his embrace, taking her right hand and rubbing the top of his head nice and slow. "Thank you...Your hug has healed me more than any other medicine could ever hope to do..."

"Hey, can I get one of those healing hugs too?" Ezekiel says. Both Pitori and Cecilia turn their heads to look at Ezekiel. With her motherly smile reappearing on her face once again, Cecilia gently pushes Pitori away and stands up on her own two feet. Walking over to the bulky man, Ezekiel can be seen getting an alarmingly worried look on his face, his mind now gripped with fear. It is unknown as to what Cecilia does next...But from what one would be able to hear, they could assume that what is being done is extremely brutal. "YOU IDIOT! YOU THINK I DIDN'T NOTICE THOSE TREMORS? YOU TRYING TO BRING THE WHOLE FU-" "OW! MY MANHOOD!" "-PLACE DOWN? AND ANOTHER THING, YOU GOT TO LEARN TO STOP BEING SUCH A FU-" "HOW ARE YOU PUNCHING MY LIVER?" "-BABY WHEN IT COMES TO PEOPLE TOUCHING YOUR BEARD! I MEAN COME ON NOW, DARNIA HAS AN AWESOME BEARD, BUT YOU DON'T SEE HIM GOING ALL 'RAH, KILL EVERYTHING IN THE FU-" "NO NO NO NO, NOT THE CHEST HA-GRAAAAAAH!" "-UNIVERSE' MODE WHEN SOMEONE TOUCHES HIS BEARD, DO YOU?"

After all is said and done, Ezekiel can be seen cowering on the ground in pain, Cecilia has probably blown about seventeen head gaskets during her anger induced onslaught, and Pitori is seen kneeling on the ground while whimpering like a puppy dog. Gemini and Geno, on the other hand, are pretty much speechless about the whole ordeal they just witnessed happen before their eyes. In fact, her loud rant was enough to wake Luigi up. The green plumber lifts his head up off the ground, and with an emotionless expression now painted on his face he quickly looks back and forth at Geno and Gemini, hoping one of them would notice that he was awake. "'Ello?" He asks. The Lieutenant turns his head to the left, and after a few quick shakes his expression changes from surprised to cheerful. "Hey, welcome back Luigi, we thought you were dead for a moment there." "Yeah, would've been a real shame if you left this world and came back as a Boo." Geno says in a joking manner. "That's not funny Geno!" Luigi exclaims. "Anyways, just glad to have you back man." Gemini stands up and pats Luigi on the shoulder before he turns his attention towards the three Genesis Samurais. "Alright, we all won, so what happens now?" He asks. "We have completed our duty as guardians of this temple. However, we shall accompany you to the final room where your friend shall become our new Master." Cecilia replies. "Sounds like a plan to me." Geno gets up and begins walking. "Come on Luigi." He says to the green plumber. It takes a couple of moments for him to stand up, due to all that he has been through, but he is able to find the energy necessary to get up and join his fellow comrades and the three Genesis Samurais as they all proceed to walk towards the exit way...

_Next Time: His Last Flame, Zeno Blaze_


	41. Chapter 41

**Chapter 41: Dawn of Genesis VI: Pull Away the Flames**

****_8 minutes remain..._

Mario and Alex are seen quickly rushing up the stairs. They seem to go on forever with no end in sight, but as they continue to ascend their bodies start to warm up and produce sweat in order to counteract the increasing heat. "Huff...Huff...You holding up there Mario?" Alex asks. "Hoo...Hoo...Yes..." Mario breathes heavily between saying each word. "I figured...You might be...Huff...Having some problems considering the type of clothing your wearing..." "Hey, I'm used to this kind of heat..." "Heh, true enough Mario, true enough..." Alex felt happy. For the first time since the journey began, it was just him and the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. As nostalgic vibes overcome him, he smiles and lifts his head up to look at his friend. "Mario, we got this." He says. "Hmm?" The plumber raises an eyebrow and turns his head slightly to look at the boy. "I don't care what their rules are, you and I are going to fight the last guy together, and then I'll be able to avenge Darwin..." From the way Alex spoke, Mario knew that the boy was determined with all of his heart.

"He's been through a lot that boy..." He then thinks to himself. The plumber flashes back through memories of their entire adventure up to this point. He thinks back to when he first met the boy, their encounter with Driad, the sheer feeling of terror in their minds when they fought the first inner guardian, how happy he had felt when he had been reunited with his old friend Mallow, the time where it was revealed that Driad used to be one of the guardians, his close encounters with death when they fought both the outer guardian of the lightning palace and Joe Dark during their second battle with him, and finally the joy he felt when he had rescued Peach from the evil clutches of Bowser himself. But as he reminisced, he knew one for certain...

"I can't let him fight the last warrior..." Though both of their bodies continue to sweat, they eventually reached the top of the staircase, where the temperature decreases by a small margin. The two heroes enter the circular room and to their surprise find it to be rather dimly lit. Very odd, when one considers that this is the area where the warrior of fire should be. "I figured there would've been at least a couple of torches or something..." Alex walks forward while staring at the ground. After noticing a bit of ash resting beneath his toes, he gives it a little kick, send it up into the air where a light breeze then blows it away.

Mario feels the hairs on the back of his neck rise up, as he notices the room heating up behind where he currently stands. With a quick glance over his shoulders, he sees a wall of red fire rising up from the ground in front of the door that they just came through. It's not just there that the flames are rising at though. It begins to advance around the perimeter, extending it's territory out so that all exits will soon be blocked. Upon realizing this, Mario turns his head around and rushes towards Alex. The boy notices the fire appearing off to the left, and before he has time to question why this is happening the plumber grabs him around the waist and lifts him over his head, his body pointed towards the door on the other side of the room. "Ah! Mario, what are you doing?" Alex proclaims in a panicked tone.

The plumber refuses to answer the boy, his body straining to keep him held up in the air. With not much time remaining until the wall of fire completely blocks the only way out, Mario uses all of his strength to toss Alex towards the doorway. The boy flies through the air, unable to stop himself and fly back to where the plumber stands due to the speeds that he is moving at. He is able to make it through the doorway right before the flames cover it up completely. His body lands flat against the floor that rests in front of the staircase, but he doesn't stay down for long. Getting back on his feet again, Alex gets as close to the flaming wall as he can and screams out at the top of his lungs. "MARIO! What are you doing? What is going over there?"

It's hard for him to hear the boy, what with the flames blocking out most of the sound on the other side and all, but he is able to hear him nonetheless. "Because...You can't fight the last guy." Mario could barely get those words out of his mouth, but now was the time for him to be honest. "You know it, I know it, the rest of the group knows it...You are the weakest member in our group..." In light of what was just said to him, the boy's eyelids thrust open all the way, his body beginning to tremble ever so slightly. "...It is true...I am weak." Alex says quietly to himself, clenching his fist in front of his chest and trying his hardest not to curse his powerlessness. "That's exactly why I have chosen to stay behind and fight, that's why everyone else has sacrificed themselves to fight these warriors that have stood in our way. When you get to the top, obtain the Overlord's power like the tablet foretold you would and prove to us that you'll become a worthy successor with it! You have to go and meet your destiny...You don't need to worry about me, or the others! We can handle ourselves just fine, SO GO!" After Alex hears Mario say all that he had to say, he nods his head, turns himself around, and begins to ascend up the staircase...Leaving the plumber alone inside the ring of fire...

"Ha, I see now why the fates delivered you to me, Mario of the Mushroom Kingdom." A familiar voice speaks out to the plumber. Recognizing it immediately, Mario turns around and is surprised by who he sees standing before his eyes. It was Darwin Serenta, the man that they had encountered when they had first arrived near the temple. "Darwin? But weren't you banished from this place forever?" Mario asks. "I was? I don't remember ever saying that…Besides, don't you think it would be silly…" Darwin places his right hand flat on his chest and closes his eyelids. "For the leader of the Genesis Samurais to banish himself from the temple that he is supposed to be guarding?"

Mario goes wide-eyed upon hearing this revelation. "The l-l-leader?" He says. "Yeah, sorry for leading you to believe that I was someone that I'm not...Though if I can be honest, Darwin Serenta WAS my civilian name before I became the leader of this group." Darwin nervously rubs the back of his head, chuckling at the silliness of this whole situation. "Really, I guess there wasn't much of a point in lying to you..." He whispers to himself. Opening his eyelids, the man looks at Mario, who looks as though he has a few things to say to him. "You got something on your mind? We got time to spare, so say whatever you wish to say to me." "If you were lying about your identity, then were you also lying about the curse?" The plumber asks. "Nope! If you lose, you'll be forced to wander the temple area for all eternity, or until the Overlord is reborn. Of course, that's what makes everything so perfect."

"What are you taking about?" Mario says, perplexed by the man's cryptic words. "Think about it. There are seven members in our group, and eight members in yours. Subtract the seven strongest members from your group, and who are you left with?" At that moment, the truth hits Mario like a bullet bill to the face. "Alex..." Is the only word that emerges from his mouth. "Bingo!" Darwin shouts out, pleased with the fact that Mario figured everything out as quickly as he did. "So really, it won't matter if either you or your friends lose any of the battles. We were told to follow our master's commands, so once your friend Alex gets his powers..." "Then he'll just tell you to lift the curse..." Mario finishes Darwin's sentence for him, but as he continues to get answers, he also finds himself with more questions appearing his head.

"Then what is the point of us fighting? And what is the point of this flaming circle if you are just going to have a friendly duel with me?" He asks. "Now now, the boy WILL get the Overlord's powers, I can assure you that...But wouldn't it be a shame if we were to miss out on such a spectacle?" Darwin summons flames in the palm of the hand that rests on his chest. The robe catches on fire, and the man shakes his hand off to the side in order to put the flames out. When the robe burns away completely, it is revealed that he is wearing a full samurai garb underneath. The ensemble comes complete with the chest plate, shoulder pads, and baggy pants that one would see being worn by Japanese Samurais in the late 17th century, during the Sengoku era. Held against his waist is a diamond katana, whose handle is encrusted with a variety of amber colored jewels. "I don't see how you could-" Mario stops himself mid-sentence, as he looks around and remembers that the wall of fire is still up.

"Ah, good, you figured things out. So let me bring up a few extra details before we begin our fight." Darwin bends down and tries to touch his toes, but a quick snapping sound from his back causes him to quickly lift his body back up. "Man, am I out of shape or what..." A small yawn emerges from his mouth as he rubs the center of his back with his right hand. "I guess I shouldn't have taken that nap outside the temple before you guys came..." With a few blinks of the eyelids, he realizes that he is wasting time stretching when he should really be talking. "Oh right, almost forgot...Anyways, it's like this Mario. This room right here has the only passageway that leads to the room with the Rebirth Orb, the object that contains the Overlord's powers. In other words, all of your friends will have to pass through here in order to each the top..." "And because of your ring of fire...They won't be able to pass." The portly plumber gets a scowl on his face, angered at the fact that Darwin would impede both him and his friends like this.

"This is how fate works, my fellow hero. If you deserve to see the majesty of the Overlord's rebirth, then you WILL win. If you are unworthy though, then you shall lose. It is as plain and simple as that..." Darwin pulls his katana out of it's holder and points it down at the ground, then takes his left hand and places his left pointer finger out in front of his nose while closing his eyelids tightly. "The phoenix is the judge, the one that governs the universe and chooses how it's history shall unfold. I am his right hand, the indestructible blade that cuts apart the shadows and cleanses darkness with the flames that reside within my soul...Though the mighty bird has once fallen, this is the day that many an evil shall scorn, as below heaven's light his divine flame will be reborn!" A flaming aura suddenly bursts into existence around Darwin's body, as his katana glows red and begins to melt the ground below it's tip. His eyelids thrust open, the look in his eyes projecting a serious feeling onto the battle ready Mario. "I AM ZENO BLAZE! Now fight me with all your might, hero of the Mushroom Kingdom!"

Zeno vanishes and reappears in front of the plumber, attempting to slash him in the gut with his katana. The plumber responds swiftly by grabbing a hold of the blade's dull side and pushing down on it hard enough so that it ends up being dislodged from the man's hand. Due to being let go the katana loses it's glow, and thus when it lands on the ground it doesn't melt through the rocks. The plumber then grabs a hold of the man's wrist once he notices him try to summon a fireball in the palm of his hand. As Zeno tries to wiggle himself free from Mario's grip, he stares the plumber straight in the eyes with a look of intrigue on his face. "Not bad, being able to touch my katana's blade and all...You learned the Firebrand from the Oho Jees, I assume?" Mario nods his head in response to Zeno's question. "Then this will be a lot more interesting than I had originally THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!" Unable to free himself, the flaming samurai uses his strength to lift Mario up off the ground. After this he turns his body around with enough force that it causes the plumber to release his grip on Zeno's wrist and be tossed through the air towards the southern side of the room.

A quick recovery gives Mario enough time to flip around so his weight is all centered on the lower part of his body. Gravity does the rest after that point, and he lands on his two feet just two yards away from the flaming wall. Glancing over his shoulder, Mario notices a wave of flames coming straight at him. By ducking down, the wave passes harmlessly over his head, where it is absorbed into the wall of fire just a moment afterwards. Turning his head to the left as he raises himself up off the ground, Mario notices that Zeno has picked his katana back up, though at the moment he has it gripped over his left shoulder. The man brings his weapon back out in front of his body and after quickly releasing his grip on it he catches it by the handle using his pointer finger. Once he does this he spins around in the air for a few seconds before grabbing onto it again with the tip of the blade now pointed at the ground. At this very instance he stands motionless, holding his other hand up and wagging his fingers towards where he stands, taunting Mario to come and attack him.

The plumber knew better though, instead choosing to stand back and attack from a distance. He knew that he wouldn't be able to hit Zeno with his fireballs, Mario Finale, or Flame Cannon technique. So until he can dispel the flaming aura, he'll have to either play defense, or use physical attacks to deal damage. "It's time to bust it out again I suppose..." Mario thinks to himself as he reaches into his right pocket and pulls out F.L.U.D.D.'s storage cube. By placing the cube on his back and pressing down on the button, the water pack is summoned from hyperspace and a belt appears from the left side of the cube to wrap itself around Mario's waist.

"Interesting…" Zeno notes. Wasting no time, Mario switches F.L.U.D.D.'s nozzle from normal to Turbo. "Lightly now…" He whispers to himself. Loosely wrapping his hands around the water pumps handles, a powerful stream of water emerges from the pump that propels Mario forward along the ground while at the same time cutting a hole through the wall of fire. With the plumber charging at him, Zeno takes his katana and flips it up into the air. He then executes a series of rapid arm movements which builds up flaming energy into the form of a sphere. After the orb has been fully built, he places his palms forward with the thumbs and index fingers touching each other to form a diamond shape.

Thrusting his palms out, Zeno sends the energy orb at Mario's general direction. Quickly swerving his body to move off to the left, the plumber manages to barely avoid coming in contact with the orb. Then he swerves his body so he flies towards the now defenseless Zeno. Mario releases his grip on the right handle and holds his fist behind his back, ready to strike the samurai with all of his might. At that moment Zeno calmly reaches up into the air and grabs a hold of his Katana by the handle. Lowering his arm and placing the katana back in the holster, the samurai turns his body to the side while gripping the handle of the sword with his right hand. Mario is unable to change direction in time in order to react to Zeno's sudden movement, so as he flies past him he ducks his head to counteract against the possibility of him cutting his head off with one swift slash.

Instead, the samurai pulls his sword out of his holster and with one swift, precise strike F.L.U.D.D.'s turbo nozzle is cut off from the rest of the water pack. Upon losing the nozzle, Mario trips and tumbles along the ground. His body rolls against the hard, rocky floor, stopping once he is only four feet away from the flaming wall on the opposite side of the room. Now resting with his face laid flat against the ground, Mario weakly lifts his head up and looks over at the detached nozzle. Water drips out of it, but it doesn't stick around for long before the heat in the room turns it into steam that flies up into the air and vanishes. Zeno places his katana back into his holster and bends down to pick the nozzle up off the ground. After standing back up he turns towards Mario and lightly tosses the nozzle into the air while examining it with a look of intrigue. After he grasps onto it for the final time, he finds himself impressed by the technology, and let's out a whistle to match his feelings on it. "Hydrodynamic water pump technology…Nice, wouldn't have suspected you of being an inventor, Mario."

The samurai is all praise, but the plumber can't accept credit for something he didn't make. "Sorry, but I'm not worthy to accepting your compliment…" While Mario pushes himself up off the ground, Zeno blankly stares at him, stares back at the nozzle, then stares back at the plumber and tosses it towards his general direction. The plumber stands up, holds up his right hand, and calmly catches the part out of the air without even looking. Then he takes his other hand and presses the button on his back. A hyperspace vacuum sucks in both the broken nozzle part and the rest of the water pack as well. Once the belt has been loosened and tucked away into the cube itself, the plumber takes it and stuffs it back into his overall pocket. "Man, I'd like to meet the man who designed that water pump for you. I'd assume that he was also the one who built whatever strange device allowed you and your friends to come here, right?" In response to Zeno's question, Mario slowly nods his head.

"Well, enough idle chatter. We should really resume our battle now." For the rest of the battle the two warriors had decided that no more words would be exchanged between each other. Without access to F.L.U.D.D., Mario had no way of dispelling the flaming aura that surrounded Zeno, so now he would have to resort to using nothing but physical techniques in order to win. Not showing any signs of hesitation despite the odds being stacked against him, the portly plumbers runs at Zeno with a plan in mind for his next attack. The samurai observes the plumber's movements closely, keeping his right hand near the handle of his katana in case he needs to defend himself. Mario jumps into the air and holds his fist up in the air. As he comes down towards the ground he pushes his fist forward an inch to punch Zeno in the face, but the samurai swiftly jumps back, pulling his katana out of the holster and holding it horizontally behind his back. Instead of hitting it's target, Mario's fist slams down onto the ground, cracking it upon impact. Assuming him to be defenseless, Zeno quickly takes his katana and jabs it out in front of his body. This attack misses though, as Mario is able to quickly roll under the blade. While underneath the samurai's head, Mario springs up and uppercuts him one right in the jaw. The force put into that punch sends Zeno flying towards the ceiling.

Though damaged by Mario's punch, the samurai is able to quickly recover and flip himself around in mid-air so his feet are pointed at the ceiling. As soon as they make contact with it, he rebounds off and flies down towards the plumber, grasping his katana with both hands and holding it high over his head. Noticing the man coming at him, Mario turns around and jumps forward in order to get away from where he will land at. Zeno moves his legs so that they are positioned towards the floor, keeping his blade pointed at the ground as well. Once he lands on the floor he bends down and pierces the ground with his katana, causing flaming pillars to randomly erupt all-around from underneath the floor. Glancing over his left shoulder while running rampantly around the area to avoid the flames, Mario fears that he won't be able to outmaneuver the pillars for long, as not even he knows where they will pop up next. He then notices that Zeno is keeping his katana stuck in the ground, and realizes that unless he can force the man to pull it out he will continue to be plagued by the constantly erupting pillars.

Changing the direction of his run so he is now heading towards the center of the room where the samurai is currently kneeling at, Mario jumps left and right in order to avoid the flaming pillars that keep popping up without any warning. There is that one stray pillar though that pops up right next to the plumber and burns his left sleeve, forcing him to take a moment in order to put the fire out with a couple brushes of his left glove. What he is left with afterwards is a charred mark right above his elbow area. But that's such a minor thing to worry about when the rest of his body could be burned to ashes in an instant. With that distraction discarded from his mind, Mario is now 3 feet away from where Zeno is currently at. The man opens his eyes and sees Mario approaching with his arms held out beside his body. By ripping the katana up out of the ground, the flaming pillars stop coming out of the ground for the time being. The plumber didn't notice it at first, but during the time where Zeno was kneeled on the ground his flaming aura had completely vanished.

The plumber brings his hands out in front of his body and claps them together, which creates a miniature flaming shockwave roughly double the size of his palms. As he pulls them apart they begin to spark, igniting both of them in a blaze of fire. When Zeno attempts to slash Mario once again with his katana, the plumber uses both of his hands to grab onto the dull side of the blade and stop it from coming any closer to him. There's a brief expression of surprise on the samurai's face when this happens, but that eventually changes as he gets a rather arrogant smirk on it, his eyes looking down at the katana before looking back at the plumber. Confused by the sudden change of emotions, Mario looks down to find that the katana has become very hot to the touch, the blade's glow becoming brighter and brighter with each passing second.

Eventually, the plumber is forced to release his grip on the katana and blow on both of his hands in order to cool them down. At the same time this dispels the flames surrounding his gloves. While the plumber panics, Zeno grasps the handle of his katana with both hands and lifts it high above his head, pulling in flames from all-around the room to power up his sword. "Divine Blaze: Oni Storm!" As the name of the attack is spoken out, Mario turns his head slightly to the left and his eyes bulge out of their sockets in fear. He quickly jumps to the side to avoid the man's flurry of sword slashes. "Link Beta: Ifrit Thrust!" Finishing up his multiple slash attack, Zeno flips his katana around and jabs it out at the plumber, flames surrounding the blade to form the shape of a ferocious demon's head.

Mario dodges this attack too, but the samurai does not seem to be ready to let up just yet. "Link Xi: Volcanic Slash!" Once again the samurai flips his katana around so it's pointed behind his back, then grasps the handle with both hands and cuts the ground below him. As he raises the katana up into the air, Mario jumps to the side to avoid the attack on his legs. "Link Tau: Reverse Burst!" Zeno slams his weapon onto the ground, releasing all the energy that's been built up into it in a powerful flaming burst. Of course, Mario dodges this attack just like the rest, but that's what the samurai wanted him to do. The flames freeze in place for a second, and then they begin to collapse back into where they had emerged from in the first place. At the same time this creates a powerful gravitational force that pulls Mario in closer to where the samurai is at.

The plumber tries his hardest to escape the grasp of the pull, but as he continues to struggle the pull increases in strength. Eventually the flames are re-absorbed into the katana, with the heel of Mario's foot now on the tip of the weapon. "Link Iota: Uplifting Steam!" A powerful burst of hot stream rises from the ground underneath the plumber's feet, raising him helplessly into the air. As his body spins around above the ground, Zeno spins his katana around in the air and places it gently into his holster. Then he crosses both of his arms behind his back and takes a deep breath in, pulling his head back in order to properly angle his next attack.

Once ready, he thrusts his head forward and breathes out of his mouth, flames emerging from within in a spread form towards the airborne plumber. As his body spins around, he notices the flamethrower coming right at him and becomes gripped with fear, for there is nothing he can do to stop the attack. Engulfed by the full might of the attack, Mario is carried through the air, only a few seconds away from being burnt to a crisp by the nearby wall of flames."Only one way I can free myself in time..." The plumber quickly reaches into his overall pocket and pulls out the F.L.U.D.D.'s hyperspace cube. Pressing the red button on it, the water pump reappears, minus the nozzle of course. "I'm sorry to do this Professor..." The plumber smashes his head against the water container, shattering the glass that keeps the liquid trapped inside. He then lifts the device up over his head so the waters come out and puts out the fires that surround his body. This works effectively, and the plumber falls to the ground with his clothes now completely drenched.

Now that his target had been freed, Zeno stops his attack and takes his arms out from behind his back. "Clever move, but now nothing can save you from the might of my flames..." Calmly pulling his katana out from within the confines of it's holster, the samurai holds it out in front of his body, pointing it straight at the plumber as he gets up off the ground. His clothes are dripping water down onto the ground, forming a small puddle around his feet. "Shame, seems like you aren't worthy after all..." "Really now?" Mario says in response. The plumber takes a bit of water that was held in his left hand and quickly tosses it at the samurai while he is busy looking down on him. Not thinking much of this, Zeno is surprised when this tiny bit of water is enough to dispel his aura. "Huh?" He reacts in a shocked tone.

"Let's-a go!" Mario nudges the edge of his hat and makes a quick dash towards the samurai while his guard is down. The first attack that the plumber performs is a quick left jab into the chest plate of the samurai's armor, lightly denting it when upon connecting. He then takes his other fist and uppercuts the man in the jaw, knocking him into the air. While he's up there Mario jumps with his arms held out beside him and spins around in air, rapidly smacking his fists into the man's face in order to not only deal damage, but to also keep him distracted so he is unable to perform a counterattack. Once he's done with this he stops spinning and immediately follows up by flipping his body around and bringing both of his feet down on top of the man's head, a powerful attack that causes Zeno to grimace in pain before rocketing down towards the ground a few moments afterwards. Slamming into the floor, Zeno's body creates a crater upon impact, his body laid flat against the cracked ground. He can then be seen wiggling his fingers around while attempting to lift himself up off the ground. Not wanting to run the risk of him getting up, Mario flips himself around once again so his legs are pointed at the ground.

He isn't planning on letting gravity take hold so he would end up stomping on the man's vulnerable backside though. Instead, the plumber holds his hands up above his head and begins to form a medium red fireball in the air between both of his palms. Grabbing the fully formed orb with both hands, Mario begins to descend towards the ground, turning his body around so the orb is pointed downward at Zeno's back. Moving at great speeds, a flaming aura appears briefly around Mario's body, but it fades away in an instant once his orb makes contact with the samurai. Though the man can be seen screaming out in pain, the sounds fall on deaf ears. Nothing has destroyed his hearing, it's just that all he can hear are the voices of the memories that rest deep inside of his mind...

_It is approximately two-thousand years ago...A man and a woman, both wearing the same brown cloak with golden trim, can be seen entering the Origin Temple. Their faces completely obscured by the shadows cast from the cloak's hoods, it is impossible to tell just who they are or what their motives are. As they approach the staircase at the very end of the room, all seven Genesis Samurai appear behind them, their appearances unchanged from what they look like in the present. The two mysterious people stop in place as the seven honorable warriors bend down on one knee and bow their heads in respect. "...What are you all doing here?" The cloaked man asks, his tone sounding both tired and strained. Darnia Stratos lifts his head up slightly, his eyes never once making contact with the man's feet. "We followed you here, to ensure that no remnants of the Dark King's army attempt to attack you in your weakened state and steal your power...My liege." Upon making his presence known, Darnia lowers his head once more._

_"...I thank you for your concern...But I can defend myself...You have another reason for being here, I assume?" The man turns his head to the right. "Yes...Before you left, you told us that we were to help guard this temple after you transferred your powers to the Genesis Orb...Or rather, that's what you explained to me anyways..." "And guard it you shall...For eternity if you must..." The man responds coldly. "...Sire, if I may ask..." Cecilia says, trying her hardest to force those words out of her lips. "But we are mortal, we were not granted eternal life like you were...So I was wondering-" "Worry not, matters will be taken into my own hands...Once I die, as long as you stay in this temple you will never age a day..." The man folds his hands in front of his chest, and turns around to look at his comrades. Though they cannot see it, the warriors feel his warm, serious glare being burned into their retinas. "My warriors...No, my friends...I thank you for the years. You've all served me as long as you have been able to...I dragged you through dangerous lands, planets torn to ruin by wars, fires created from beings as demonic as Him...So I shall ask you this now. Are you really willing to drag yourself through the decades, centuries, perhaps even the eons that it might take for the new host of my powers to arrive? If you choose not to, then you can go home, know that you will not be plagued with seeds of doubt, and you will all be able to live the rest of your lives in peace...So stay still and think to yourselves, what is your choice, my friends?"_

_"We will stay without question!" Almost all of them say in an instant. The only one who stays quiet is the young Zeno, his eyes trying their hardest to hold back the tears. "Very well…When my compatriot returns to this location alone, you shall be allowed to explore the temple and design the rooms based on your own needs…Until then I hope you shall stay where you are at…Your eyes should not witness the horrors of what I am about to do…" Giving his orders, the man turns around and heads up the staircase, his other cloaked comrade following him a few seconds later. As they both fade into the shadows, Zeno tightly clenches his left hand around his bent knee and lifts his head up to stare at the staircase with anger in his eyes and his teeth gritted. _

_"Master!" The young man exclaims, getting up and rushing at the staircase with all of his might. Cecilia raises her head and holds her right hand out, ready to call out to him, but Darnia places one hand on her shoulder, causing her to stop and turn her head to look at him. "Don't chase after the boy." The elderly man says, lifting his head up to meet her eyes with his own. "It's not even wise to call out to him. You know his origins, you know his relationship to the Overlord, so for him…Saying goodbye is something that he just cannot bring himself to do while we are around….He'll come back, just give him a few minutes to sort things out with our master." _

_Later on, Zeno finally manages to catch up with the Elemental Overlord as he is only a few seconds away from leaving the charred room where the young samurai currently lives in during the present time. "Wait!" He cries out to him. The cloaked man hears his fellow warrior's voice and stops in place. Zeno falls to his knees and places his hands flat against the ground. Tears trickle down from both of his eyes, and as he begins to make sniveling noises the cloaked man turns around. "Did you not hear me? You were told to stay put-" "I...I couldn't stay." The Overlord was about to raise a finger in order to berate Zeno for his disobedience, but decides instead to hear him out. "You are like a father to me...I lost both my mother and father only a month after I was born...No one would take me in, they all called me a destructive fire that would never be controlled...I was left for dead in the cold mountain region, until you found me..." The young samurai finds it hard to keep speaking coherently. "We weren't even related by blood...You never even knew my parents...Yet you took me in anyway, not to better yourself as a person, not to wrongfully use my powers...You even took in all the anger of the people, their ridicule towards me...You carried all of it on your back, never once regretting your decision to take care of me..."_

_"I know you're faking it...Your body isn't dying out...SO WHY? WHY ARE YOU LEAVING ME AND THE REST OF THE WORLD?" Zeno cries out for an answer. The cloaked lady turns her head to look at the Overlord, underneath the hood one could tell that she was surprised by the samurai's accusations. "It is true that my body is not mortally wounded..." The cloaked man says. "But I have defiled the laws that the universe assigned to my role of power...A wound can be healed, the blood dripping from it washed away forever...But a sin, especially one of such caliber as the one that I have committed, is a permanent mark that can never be erased from your heart..." He then walks over to Zeno and bends down, patting his back with his right hand. "I'm proud of you, and it saddens me greatly to have to leave you...and the rest of my people as well. But know this, though my body shall depart, my spirit will one day be reborn into the body of a new heir to my legacy...As I said to you and the others earlier, you can choose to stay...Or you can live out the rest of your lives peacefully..."_

_"I never heard your answer...So it's now or never, my son." The Overlord's heartfelt talk cheered the young Zeno up, and he felt as though his "father"'s words would be enough to carry him and his comrades through the many years that he would have to endure in order to see his legacy be reborn. "I will stay here father...Lead my comrades to defend against any evil that tries to corrupt this most sacred of domains." He stops crying and lifts his head up, using his left head to brush away a tear that rested on his cheek. "So, just have to ask...Can this room here be my room?" "Yes, yes it can...It was already predetermined to be such before I even arrived on this world. Even so, I made a few modifications to fit your desired needs…Consider it be my final gift to you, my son." "F-father…Thank you..." After those words are exchanged between them, the two share a nice, quick hug with each other. Then the Overlord has one more thing to say to his adoptive son. "Now...Rest easy, and goodbye..." The last thing Zeno can remember is someone or something delivering a powerful judo chop to his backside..._

Back in the present, the battle between Mario and Zeno has ended. The plumber can be seen standing beside the samurai's body, which has been laid flat against the ground right outside a molten crater. The ring of fire that kept them both trapped in this room has vanished, dispelled the moment it sensed it's master's defeat. Zeno makes a loud groaning noise, and it only takes a few seconds for his body to come to after that. Slowly opening his eyelids, he is surprised to see that the plumber is still with him. He lifts his head up and takes a look around. "I seem to have lost..." He says with a heavy sigh. "How long was I out for?" His questions directed towards the only person who could answer him. "Not for very long, about forty seconds if I would have to take a guess." The plumber quickly responds.

"So why are you still around?" The samurai asks, confusion overtaking the feelings of pain that he feels in his back. "Well, you see..." Mario is interrupted by the sound of a mighty roar coming from the next room, followed by an explosivion and the sound of a wall crumbling apart. Zeno springs to life, jumping on his own two feet and working out the kinks in his back with both arms. Mario turns his head to look at the nearby staircase, suddenly coming to a realization that Alex had gone on ahead to the next floor. "Forget trying to explain yourself right now Mario, your friend sounds like he's in trouble...But that could only mean…We have to hurry, before it's too late!" With a panicked expression on their faces, both Mario and Zeno rush to the staircase, the plumber dreading the fact that Joe Dark may be the one who has broken in...

_Next Time: Darkness Decides. This is his Journey_


	42. Chapter 42

**Chapter 42: Dawn of Genesis VII: Last Words of the Witch**

_5 minutes remain..._

With no choice but to leave his companion Mario behind, Alex rushes up the staircase to reach the climax of his journey. As he runs his heart is racing and his mind filled with a sense of overwhelming excitement. But deep down, underneath this layer of rushing emotions, is a feeling of intense concern for all of his comrades that he's had to leave behind so far. "They better be winning..." He whispers to himself. Shaking his head, he dispels the negative thoughts that plague his mind and continues to keep his focus on the seemingly never-ending staircase that lies before him. "I wonder...If this is all a dream at this point..." The boy thinks back to the events that have led him here today. "A series of impossibilities...One after another..." As he continues to run through the darkness of this passageway, the boy can see a slimmer of light peeking out at the very top. "Did I truly survive my fall? If it did, was it really because I just so happened to land on THE Mario of all people? ...I have no way of proving whether this is real, or a dream that I'm having as my soul approaches death's door. Either way..." Alex gets a grin on his face as he nears the top. "I'm going to enjoy every second of this no matter what the truth is."

Reaching the top of the staircase, the boy enters the final room of the temple. By far the biggest out of all the rooms that he had traveled through thus far, Alex decides to forget his goals for a moment in order to take in the sights that rest before his eyes. There are fourteen pillars, seven on each side of the room. They extend into the shadows above, flames lit on torches at the very center of each one. Each flame is a different color, from the back of the room to the front they are green, dark blue, white, yellow, brown, light blue, and red. "...Subtle." Alex notes with a blank expression on his face. He then looks to the left, noticing an ancient mural on the wall near the first pillar and getting a curious look in his eyes. Walking over to it, the boy tries to examine it in order to determine it's meaning. The mural depicts a gargantuan black winged creature fighting what appears to an angel, whose face is obscured by the wings on it's back. Blue fires run rampant in the background, and there seems to be a demon watching from atop a lone castle tower. There is some ancient text below the picture, but Alex cannot translate it.

"Wish I knew what language this is...Oh well, whatever this picture is depicting, it seems to be an event from the past...Hmm?" Alex notices another mural off to the right of the one that he is currently looking at. This one depicts a human with strange appendages coming from it's back. The person's hand is held high into the air, as the appendages can be seen impaling themselves through the chests of other humans and some strange winged beasts similar to that of the gargantuan one from the previous mural. And as all this is happening, the moon can be seen melting in the sky, while the sun is plummeting towards the battle scarred landscape below. Looking at this mural is enough to send a chill down Alex's spine. But like before, he cannot determine the meaning behind this picture, and decides at this point to stop looking around and get on with his mission. Standing back up on his feet, he walks back to the center of the room and looks on ahead. At the very end of the room he can see a big glass orb that extrudes a powerful glow around itself. "...I guess that's the object I need to touch to get the Overlord's powers..." The boy holds both of his hand out in front of his chest and cracks his knuckles. The climax of his quest was approaching, and he had every right to feel as nervous as he did right now. But in the face of such excitement, his guard was lowered...

Alex begins to run towards the orb. Second after second passes but it appears as though he isn't getting any closer to his destination. In fact, the orb seems to be getting farther and farther away from him. "What the?" Bewildered by this turn of events, the boy stops in place and turns around. He sees the room slowly being consumed by an incoming wave of darkness. At first Alex isn't worried, assuming this to be one final trap set up by the Overlord, but then comes the echoing sounds of a familiar, eerie laugh. "EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" The darkness spreads and completely covers the room, trapping the boy in a hazy, dark purple realm with no way of escape. Upon recognizing the laugh in question, Alex turns around to find the evil witch Cackletta emerging from a hole in the ground. "You again..." He says in an irritated tone of voice.

"It's been a while, child..." The witch says with a smile slowly appearing on her face. "I see you are all alone...A vulnerable, weak little boy..." Speaking in a rather creepy, docile tone, the witch begins to approach the boy while calmly taking her right arm out from underneath her robe in preparation to cast a spell. Not wishing to be zapped by her lightning attack, Alex charges at Cackletta before she has time to summon her magic. As he holds his fist behind his back and prepares to strike, the witch summons a black dimensional hole in front of her body that sucks the boy in and makes him reappear back where he had started from. Realizing that he has missed his target completely, Alex slams his feet against the ground to stop himself from moving any further through the air. Once he has grinded to a halt, he turns himself around just in time to jump out of the way of an incoming lightning bolt spell from Cackletta. The witch lifts her right hand out from underneath her cloak and extends it out beside her body. Another lightning bolt is summoned from nowhere, almost striking Alex with impeccable accuracy.

"Yikes!" The boy exclaims as he jumps back. Enjoying watching him squirm, Cackletta lets out another one of her signature evil laughs. As the sounds of her laughter echoes throughout this mysterious realm, Alex is busy letting out a series of nervous breaths, his body producing a cold sweat to match his panicked emotion. "Why me?" He asks out loud, turning his head to look at the cackling witch. Finishing her laugh, the witch lowers her head and looks straight into the boy's fear filled eyes. "You really think I care about you at all?" Cackletta says, trying her hardest not to burst into laughter once more. "Considering you are trying to kill me...YES I DO!" The witch groans, then takes her hand and rubs her forehead in annoyance. "Let me spell it out for you..." She says in a cold, degrading tone.

"No, I do not care for you. I don't see why I would. You are merely a foolish little boy who just so happened to get caught up in events that are beyond your pitiful mortal comprehension. But of course, as fate would so have it, your insignificant existence just so happened to screw with my plans to the point that I had to come in and deal with these matters myself!" Unable to understand what the witch is trying to get at, Alex can only utter "Huh?" in confusion. Cackletta places her hands within the confines of her robe and gets a grin on her face once again. "Are you slowly coming to terms with your inability to be useful to anyone, you weak little boy? Or are you still confused as to why I am going through the trouble of killing you if I say you are so insignificant?" The boy pants for a few seconds while pondering over the witch's somewhat precise choice of words. "Truth be told...I am confused..." He says.

"Good, good...You chose not to lie to me...For that, I will grant you some insight into why your existence acts as a foil to my plans..." As the boy listens to the witch's words, he pays close attention to her motions, hoping to find a weak spot in her defenses and strike when the time is right. "It works like this...I've been able to easily phase through the barrier that keeps this temple hidden from the rest of the world. In fact, I would've easily been able to tap into the Overlord's limitless energy...Had it not been for one little problem. The orb rejected me because I was not the one foretold of in legend. Without any knowledge of the prophecy or the location of the tablet that would tell me who was the chosen one, I had to resort to other measures to make it so the orb would work for me. One of my plans was to use the Beanstar's wish granting powers to make it so the orb would respond to my touch and my touch alone...An effort that was foiled by those two ACCURSED plumbers..."

"When that attempt failed to work to my advantage, I simply waited my time out...Until the day I overheard from my colleague Fawful that Professor E. Gadd found a certain tablet...That is when I made my move. By catching him off guard, I was able to ransack his lab and look over the tablet. Upon doing so, I learned the details about who was preventing me from taking the Overlord's power. And just my luck too, cause soon afterwards the one I was looking for showed up...Along with one of the plumbers that I so very much despise. From there on out, it was just a matter of having you killed off...I came up with a few ideas, as you already know. I sent my colleague Fawful after you, I tampered with the flooring in the Terra Cave so either you would fall to your death or everyone else in your meager group would, I sent a clone of myself to the Frozen Palace in order to use a resurrected Crystal King against you, and I even planted seeds of darkness in that one boy's heart which would grow in accordance with the unlimited hatred he felt towards you...In time he would've grown into a strong enough warrior capable of killing you, a pity that you ended his life when you did. But alas, whether it was via your pathetic 'determination' or because your friends were there to bail you out, you've managed to elude the hands of death time after time again..."

"But now you are all alone...Trapped in this realm where no one will heed your cries for help, all that can save you now is yourself...But that won't happen, because you are too weak. You are nothing, forced to rely on the strength of others..." Cackletta takes her hands out from underneath her robe, charging them both with loads of magical energy in preparation to cast one final spell to finish the boy off. "I'll allow you to say your last words, or you can remain silent and I will finish you off without so much as a tussle." With the witch having nothing else to say, Alex takes a few moments to think her words over. As he does, he stops breathing heavily and moves his body so he's standing straight up. Instead of wallowing in despair, all he can do is put his hands in his pockets, close his eyelids, and let out a quiet chuckle. "Hehe, you're right. I am weak..." Contrary to what Cackletta expected, Alex does not speak in a fearful tone of voice. Instead, he sounds happy, as if he had finally accepted his faults while his time ran short...

"But you're wrong about me otherwise..." He says in a calm, collected tone. "Eh?" Is all the witch can bring herself to say. "The fact that I'm willing to rely on the strength of others means that I am aware of my shortcomings, and it also means that I will not act like a fool and recklessly fight a battle that I don't have any hope of winning. Don't you get it Cackletta? Working together with your allies is not a sign of weakness, but rather it shows the strength of the bonds between them. Think about it. You were defeated once before because of the brotherly bond that Mario and Luigi shared. We as a group were able to survive our battles up until this point because we worked together, using the very knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses to defeat each and every guardian that crossed our paths!"

"That's not all though. You said that my determination is a pathetic trait, but that's the one part of me that I know is strong! Were it not for that...No, were it not for the fact that both me and my friends have such determination in our hearts, then we would never have gotten where we are today! Mario wouldn't be a famous hero, Luigi wouldn't have discovered that deep down he has what it takes to be just as strong as his brother, Mallow would've never learned the truth about his life, Driad would've never come to accept who he is, and Geno, Gemini, and Alpha's determination has allowed them to continue fighting against these impossible odds that have been thrown at us during this journey. And this determination of mine will still persist no matter what you decided to throw at me! Let me tell you this Cackletta. I AM determined to become the next Overlord, I AM determined to use his powers to the best of my ability in order to stamp out the evil that plagues this universe, and above all I AM determined to make sure that your plans fail, for I will stop you here and now!" After he is finished talking, he opens his eyelids to see how the witch has reacted to his speech. To his surprise, her expression remains the same as it did before, only this time her smirk looks all the more menacing.

"Now that you've said your final words, it is time for this to end." Taking her magic filled hands and clapping them together, a thunderous roar erupts throughout the darkened realm. From the brink of nothingness appears a massive distorted lightning bolt that thrusts itself towards Alex's general direction. Time slows down as Alex closes his eyelids once again and begins to slowly pull something out from the his right pants pocket. "You're right there, but there's one thing you didn't account for Cackletta..." He thinks to himself. In the grip of his right hand is the Grass Stone, and as time moves at it's normal speed once again he lifts the stone high above his head, where it proceeds to release a radiant light-green glow around itself. It seems though that he is too late, as the lightning bolt proceeds to hit it's target and explodes, raising a large cloud of dust upon impact. Cackletta, satisfied with her victory, takes her arms and places them back underneath her robe. But as the dust begins to settle, the witch hears a low-pitch growl coming from within the cloud. "Eh?" Raising an eye out of curiosity, the witch waits for the dust to vanish completely.

But as it settles, the witch begins to take a few steps back, her eyes widening in fear. Her reaction is understandable, for what she sees was something she did not expect to appear at this time. The first thing that comes in to view as the dust begins to leave is a massive, moss covered arm. There are a few red roses on the arm as well, along with some vines that are wrapped tightly around it. The fist at the end of the arm is held close to the ground, and one could see a massive burn mark on the middle of the arm itself. As the dust completely vanishes, the rest of the creature is revealed. It has legs made out of mahogany with red vines wrapped around them, beastly feet made out of tree roots, the rest of it's body made up of a highly organic green moss, and it's head resembling that of a bear's made entirely out of grass. Through the thicket of leafy blades there is glowing pair of red eyes that are staring down at the frightened witch. Between it's legs stands Alex, who looks up with a glow of confidence radiating around him. Then he directs his stare towards Cackletta, who stops moving and regains her composure rather quickly.

"So, the plumber gave the stones to you...While I will admit that I did not foresee this turn of events, I am still plenty capable of taking down both you and your gigantic, lumbering shield." The witch pulls her hands out from within her robe and preps another spell. It's then that she notices Alex lowering his head and laughing quietly to himself. "What's so funny?" She asks. "Nothing...It's just..." Alex takes his other hand out from behind his back and reveals that the Wind Stone is held firmly in his grasp. "I can't believe you would think that I would only summon one of the guardians." The witch hears a wolf's howl, and turns her body around just in time to notice someone attempting to slash her with a rapier. To dodge it, she summons a dimensional hole below her feet and sinks into it, the dull side of the blade only managing to move across the top of her strange, striped head ornaments.

The wielder of the weapon is a medium built man wearing a silver wolf mask on his face, a green and gold open vest, a green pair of puffy japanese pants, two miniature wind chimes that act as ear rings, and golden armor on his elbows and knees. Once he sees that his attack has missed its mark, he let's out another howl and points his rapier at the hole. The tip of the weapon acts as a seal to prevent it from completely vanishing. "You think you can escape after you have defiled my master's domain, wench?" The man shouts out, even though he knows full well that Cackletta cannot hear him. A few seconds later, another dimensional hole opens up in the sky, the witch that created it being forced through it by a massive wind blast that the man sent into it from the tip of his rapier. The witch waves her hands and seals the hole in the sky to cut off the wind attack before she suffers anymore damage. Then she flips around and lands feet first on the ground. "So this is what happens when all seven stones are gathered...It provides them all with enough energy so that the users can summon the very guardians themselves whenever they wish!"

Before she can get up and retaliate with a powerful spell, the plant based giant grabs her tightly with it's massive left hand and lifts her high into the air. Due to the creature's strength, Cackletta finds herself unable to perform any magic that would easily free her from the beast's clutches. Alex calls the wind guardian back to its stone and places it back into his pant's pocket. Then he flies up into the air and meets the evil witch eye to eye. To his surprise, she isn't even bothering to put up a fight, instead she simply chooses to remain her calm, arrogant self as he looks at her with his arms folded in front of his chest. "To repeat what you said to me before..." The boy let's out a small cough. "I'll allow you to say your last words, or you can remain silent and I will finish you off without so much as a tussle." He says, doing a perfect imitation of the witch's voice in the process.

"Ehehehehehehehe!" Cackletta pulls her head back and let's out her signature laugh. Then she re-positions it and grins once more. "Ok, you've got me little one. Go on, burn me, smite me, strangle me, freeze me! Abuse these powers that you are unworthy of wielding! But know this...You cannot finish me off. I am as eternal as the very fear that resides in all living creature's hearts. So enjoy your victory while it lasts, because this very arrogance you choose to show before me shall one day bring about your end!" With her last words spoken, Alex's only reaction to them is to nod his head, close his eyes, and use his free hand to pull the Lightning Stone out from his pant's pocket. Holding it high above his head, the boy uses sheer willpower to command the ancient object to summon forth a powerful lightning bolt from above.

In a flash the attack smites the helpless witch, but instead of screaming in pain she lets out her loudest laugh yet. Seizure inducing lights flash throughout the realm, and as Alex puts the Lightning Stone away his head begins to throb in pain. Grasping his forehead, he begins to see a series of random images flash in his mind. Among said images includes a multitude of flaming black skulls flying through an ocean, a sun exploding and sending darkness out into the universe, and a particularly disturbing scene where Joe Dark can be seen holding what looks to be a dagger to Alex's throat, in a blink of an eye the evil boy's skin melts away to reveal his flesh, complete with diabolical looking worms eating their way through it. What really freaks the boy out though is that along with the frightening imagery of Joe Dark, he can see that his own head has been completely severed from the rest of his body, a series of angelic feathers now floating out of the hole in his neck before they promptly burn to ashes.

When this nightmarish montage has finished, Alex opens his eyes to find that he is now back in the temple, the realm of darkness gone without a trace. Thinking nothing of what he just saw due to assuming that it was merely Cackletta making one last effort to mess with his head, the boy turns around to find that the witch in question has been fried to a crisp by the lightning bolt he had summoned. Creepily enough, her eyes are now completely yellow in color, her mouth stuck in a position that makes it look like she is still laughing. "Ugh..." Alex mutters to himself. "Go ahead and get her out of here..." He says to the massive plant creature. Complying with its master's wishes, the beast lets out a massive roar before taking the witch's body and smashing it right through the left wall. Now having wrecked part of the temple's structure to fling Cackletta away without a trace, Alex smacks his forehead with his free hand and calls the creature back to it's stone by holding it up into the air. After it glows green for a few seconds, the creature returns to the realm from whence it came. When that is all said and done, Alex pockets the stone and floats back down towards the ground.

"I'm sorry I had to put you guys at risk like that...But don't worry, once I become the Overlord, then I can free you all from your cages, I promise..." The boy speaks in an apologetic tone to the guardians that sleep within the stones even though they can't hear him. Then he gets an expression of concern on his face, having just remembered the things he had seen upon defeating Cackletta. "...What was up with all that? Was she simply messing with my mind, or were all those images meant to be cryptic messages about things that are yet to come? I-" Before he can continue to ponder the purpose of the nightmarish montage, he hears the sounds of footsteps swiftly approaching from behind him. Thinking that yet another enemy was about to appear, Alex turns around and gets into a fighting pose. Though it's not a foe that arrives, but rather his portly plumber companion Mario and the Genesis Samurai of Fire Zeno Blaze. Upon reaching the top of the staircase the two men look around as if they expected a battle to be happening at this time due to the noises they heard a few seconds ago. Instead though Zeno's eyes are focused on the hole in the left wall. "Whoa..." He says in utter disbelief. He then turns his head to look at Alex and let's out a cheerful sounding whistle. "Impressive..." He says with an overall tone of praise.

Mario, after assessing the damages, turns his head to look at the boy, wondering just what the heck happened in here. "You ok?" He asks. Seeing as the two people that came are CLEARLY not his enemies, Alex takes both of his arms behind his head and gets a merry grin on his face. "Oh I'm fine...I had to deal with Cackletta, but all in all I'm unharmed." After speaking, the boy takes another look at the samurai, and his eyes widen in surprise once he realizes who he really is. "Darwin? What are doing wearing that kind of get-up? Weren't you banished from this place?" Unable to comprehend what is going on, Alex continues to bombard the flustered samurai with questions. But Mario also has concerns of his own, mainly in regards to Cackletta's appearance in this temple. None of them would receive any answers though, as the remaining Genesis Samurais and heroes slowly began to show up one after the other, causing the first three heroes to direct their attention towards their arrivals.

"Look, I'm sorry I acted so recklessly...But it's not like the temple got damaged, right?" Ezekiel Gaia says to the lovely Cecilia Frost, who is continuing to give the burly man the cold shoulder. Then the lady notices the hole in the wall, and proceeds to turn around and slap him hard across the face. "I didn't do that!" He exclaims while rubbing his now sore right cheek. The two of them then begin to bicker on and on about the hole in the wall, as Pitori Sparks lets out a simple little sigh while rubbing his forehead with his left fingers. Soon after the two begin their verbal assault on each other, Geno comes into the room carrying the exhausted Luigi on his shoulders. The man in green is then dumped off, landing buttocks first onto the ground. He gets up and dusts the back side of his overalls, thanking the star herald for carrying him most of the way here.

A few seconds later, Alpha and Gemini walk in standing side by side each other, with Darnia Stratos looming not too far behind them. Gemini is talking to the poncho wearing man about various kinds of storms, with the Commander correcting the two of them whenever they get their facts mixed up. Finally, the cloud prince Mallow walks in, still carrying the beaten Tina Aqua as he moves. Shortly afterwards, Driad comes in carrying Acia Rose in his vine arms. The plant girl lifts her head up, notices her watery comrade's situation, and let's out an arrogant chuckle. "Ha! So Teenie Tina got beaten by a cloud? What a shame..." In response, Tina glares over her shoulder at Acia and soon after turns her head back around. "At least I was not beaten by a flower, Ms. Budding Rose." Taking Tina's comment to heart, Acia's face turns red with embarrassment as she places one hand on her chest and proceeds to deny the truth to her perceptive comrade. "I-I-I-Idiot! I was not beaten by a flower...I am simply displaying my victory by having the loser carry me, that's all!" Not fooled for even a second, Tina lets out a sigh due to finding her comrade's actions to be quite humorous. "If that's what you want tp believe..." Tina says from underneath her breath. At her limit, Acia thrusts her arms out and tries her hardest to grab onto some part of Tina's body in order to pull her in closer and tear her apart limb from limb. Luckily, Driad is able to hold her back without any difficulties whatsoever.

In the face of all that is happening, Mario has forgotten about the questions he once had, and proceeds to let out a jolly good laugh due to the amusement he finds in this scenario. Zeno walks over to the plumber and pats him one on the shoulder. "Come on, let us go join and them...We all deserve to celebrate this momentous day with smiles in our hearts and joy in our minds." The plumber stops laughing, looks the samurai in the eyes, and nods his head in agreement. As the two of them walk over to join their fellow comrades, Alex looks at them with a feeling of utter disbelief, somewhat angered by the fact that they seem to have forgotten why they are even here in the first place. "...But then again, with Cackletta defeated I guess I could take a moment to relieve some stress by engaging in some harmless conversation with everyone else before I touch the orb..."

The boy slowly makes his way towards the merry group of heroes. This feeling of peace and tranquility...It was a feeling that he wished would last for an eternity. But fate is a cruel mistress, one who brings about as much bad as it does good... "Hahaha...Are you enjoying yourself, Whiter?" The cold, evil laugh, and the words that followed soon after was heard by everyone in the room. In an instant, they all went silent and turned themselves around to look at the glowing orb from which they heard the voice coming from. A single footstep is heard, followed by another, and then another. Each sound echoes throughout the room, until eventually the source of the noise emerges from behind the orb. It is Joe Dark, though he seems different than he was before. His body, now healed to the point that you could barely tell that he was on the brink of death just a couple days ago, is surrounded by a ghastly, thin black aura. His eyes have become a menacing shade of red, the color similar to that of blood coming from a newly opened wound. As he turns his head to look at all of the gathered warriors, Alex in particular, all of them begin to feel themselves being crushed by the pressure extruding from his aura. Slowly, it feels as though the joy and hope they felt just a few moments ago is being drained away, being replaced with nothing but fear and despair. And as all this is happening, Joe Dark holds his arms out in front of his body, a slasher smile emerging on his face only a few seconds later. "I'm glad all of you could come here...All of my targets, gathered together in one place..." As he speaks, a demonic presence can be felt behind his body. "Now then, who wants to die first?" He says in a chilling tone, his voice becoming increasingly demonic with every word he speaks...

_Next Time: A Flame Reborn_


	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43: Dawn of Genesis Final: Farewell to the Truth**

_"...Time is up, and it seems as though Cackletta has failed." "You lack proper faith in our magic adept companion." "No, she made her plans, we've already waited years for them to come to fruition...I say we take matters into our own hands right now!" "Ah, but that is where you are wrong my overeager companion. Even though her initial plan has been given it's final curtain call, the seeds for the encore she planted have grown into a mighty oak, whose roots shall constrict the very stars themselves until all is eclipsed by the darkness...After all, because of her, our old master has risen once more. At the very least, let us watch and see if he can bring about the end of those meddlesome stars, shall we?" "...Fine, but I am uneasy about the fact that we are expected to accept that a little boy is wielding his indescribable powers." "Indeed. But now it is time to be silent, and let the hands of fate run it's course..."_

Inside the temple, we find our heroes shivering in fear as the one called Joe Dark stares at them with a malicious intent on his mind. "Silent? I suppose that is...understandable. After all, why would you assume that I would appear here today?" Slowly raising his left hand, the boy points one finger at the fear stricken Geno. The star herald feels a painful sensation in his body, as if a spear had been lodged straight through his chest. "I thank you, wooden doll, cause were it not for you I would not have attainted this level of power..." Joe Dark lowers his arms down to the side of his body and shrugs his shoulders. "But alas, you have defended Whiter, and for that you will perish in the flames of Hell itself, where not even your precious 'Star Spirits' will be able to hear your blood curling screams." As he speaks, he holds one hand out in front of his body and summons forth a black flame in the palm. "Now then, while your eyes are burdened by the agonizing fear of death, I will fill your minds with visions of the torture I endured..."

Ethereal phantoms emerge from the dark flame and fly towards our heroes, filling the air with a plethora of violent screams. Each spirit spins itself around a different member of the group, and in fear each and every one of them close their eyelids to avoid making direct contact with them. But upon doing so they begin to see the very visions that Joe Dark spoke of.

_"I wandered the desert for what seemed to be weeks, perhaps even months, the storm that raged throughout the lands made it impossible for me to tell just how long I had been crawling along the ground for...The pain I had to live through was excruciating, thousands upon thousands of grains of sand either lodged themselves into my open wounds or scraped my vulnerable flesh...Any mortal would've died in a matter of minutes, but by that point you could say that I was no longer truly a human being...Yes, I had become a phantom, whose desire for revenge was strong enough that it enabled me to continue to live on...I continued to push myself, clawing my fingers through the very sands that were delivering unbearable amounts of pain to my being. I refused to give up, the only thing I could hear in my head were the sounds of that demonic voice that promised to show me the way to the one source of power necessary to bring about the end of Whiter..."_

_"Eventually, I came across a lone cavern...The stones were pitch-black, '-A reflection of the dark emotions in your heart' is what the demonic voice told me. Coming ever close to the power that I so desired, I crawled into the cavern with the last of my strength...And fell into a chasm of absolute darkness. That is where the fun began, my dear audience...In this very chasm, the accursed Elemental Overlord had sealed away the Dark King's powers...But my body, one filled with a level of hatred that matched his own, acted as a magnet that drew in all of those powers as I fell...It was such a delightful feeling. I could feel an eternity of nightmares rushing through my head, my skin was slowly peeled away by the demons that rest in dimensions that are incomprehensible to even the smartest of man, and yet despite how painful all of this sounds, by the time all of this was over, my body was restored to it's former glory, as if I had never been scarred in the first place. Not only that, I could feel it...Every last bit of power, every last bit of darkness that could've possibly existed in that chasm, was all absorbed into my body...Overjoyed by my rebirth, I flew out of the cavern at speeds that I was never able to fly at before...So fast, in fact, that it tore apart the walls of the chasm and disintegrated the cavern along with it...Then I made my way here, ready to exact my vengeance on the one whose loathsome existence plagued my very thoughts..."_

Once he is done with his long-winded explanation, Joe Dark recalls the phantoms back into his dark flame and then closes his hand into the shape of a fist, which causes his fingers to put out the flame. Then the heroes open their eyes, and find themselves feeling the same pain that Joe Dark had to endure through. "You seem to be weakened...A pity, I was hoping you would be a bit more...strong willed, I guess you could say. Oh well..." The boy turns himself towards the orb and holds his right hand up, then begins to slowly move it towards the artifact. He turns his head and gives out another demonic grin towards the group. "Since you are now incapacitated by the rush of negative emotions in your body, I will just be taking the Overlord's powers for myself...Quite ironic if you ask me, that you work so hard to make sure that Whiter obtained them for himself, and now...I will end all of your lives with said powers..."

Before his hand can touch the orb though, Alpha gets a hold of himself and changes his right arm into it's cannon form, then he takes the loaded weapon and fires a laser blast straight at Joe Dark. Even though he notices the incoming attack, the evil boy makes no attempt to try and avoid it, instead choosing to let the beam hit his hand. Doing no real harm, the attack only manages to singe his knuckles. This however, causes Joe Dark to pull his arm back and turn around to look at his attacker. "Hmm, I don't recall ever meeting you...But I do not care to learn your name, all I know is that you are defending that scum Whiter like all the rest that have gathered here, and for that you too shall burn."

One by one each hero begins to recover from their bouts with despair and proceeds to stand tough against the fearsome might of Joe Dark's powers. Zeno walks forward and draws his katana from his holster, pointing it at the evil boy with determined thoughts running wildly through his mind. "You think you can bind us in place with your talks of despair and pain? That we are nothing more than puppets that can be controlled? If you wish to fulfill your pitiful desire for revenge, fallen child, then you will have to end all of our lives here and now in order to do so!" In the face of this lone samurai's bravado, along with the rest of the group's newfound courage, all Joe Dark can do is place one hand on his face and use his fingers to softly rub his forehead. "Sigh...Well then, if that's all I have to do..." Removing his hand from his face, Joe Dark quickly rises into the air, flying straight through the ceiling while letting out a chilling evil laugh. "Follow me if your courage is true, mighty heroes! MWAHAHAHAHA!"

Zeno sheathes his blade and rushes towards the orb, and upon reaching the area where Joe Dark once stood he jumps into the air to pursue him. The rest of the heroes head to the same location, and one by one they all jump through the hole in the ceiling to join the battle (Mallow has to be carried up by Mario though, due to his horrible jumping ability). The only one who stays behind is Alex, and as he stands before the radiant orb he begins to worry about the rest of the group's safety. "I won't let you guys sacrifice yourselves for my sake anymore...It's my turn to do the fighting now." As he raises his hand towards the orb, his heart begins to pump loudly to signify his nervousness towards what he is about to do. But not once does he consider backing down. They had all come so far, and he was not about to let his fear of Joe Dark's new powers get in the way of him fulfilling his destiny.

Once his skin makes contact with the round artifact, it's as if time around him grinds to a halt. Rays of light emerge from all around the orb, completely filling the room with it's magnificent glow. But this light does not blind Alex, instead it merely welcomes his presence in this newly formed realm. Shimmers of red light glow all around, as an orb of light roughly the size of the boy's body floats down from above to greet him. "...Am I inside the orb?" He thinks to himself. "Yes, you are here because I willed it..." A wise sounding man's voice echoes inside Alex's mind, which needless to say greatly surprises him. "Hello?" He once again thinks to himself, hoping to catch the attention of the person who spoke to him. "You need not worry, I am already right here in front of you." The boy lifts his head up to look at the orb, which is where the voice he is hearing is coming from.

"Are you...the Elemental Overlord?" Alex asks, the presence of this being sending shivers down his spine. "I am. Or rather, I am what remains, a spirit who is unable to either ascend into Heaven or descend into Hell. I am certain you have many questions to ask me young one, but we do not have much time I'm afraid...Now that the Dark King has been reborn in the body of that most dreadful child..." The boy gets on his knees and lowers his head to bow before this long forgotten deity's spirit. "I'm touched by your politeness...For a moment there, I almost thought that all would have come to an end..." "How so?" Alex asks. "Though I cannot break free of this prison, I am still able to see the events that unfold outside of here. It is lucky for me, or rather...Lucky for you, that you have comrades that are so willing to toss their lives away for the sake of others...Were it not for them, the one called Joe Dark would've absorbed my powers as well, and with them he would bring about the end of all worlds..."

"How can that be? Cackletta said that only I-" "You listened to that witch's words? Not even she has all of her facts straight. While it is true that this orb was designed so that the rightful heir can claim my powers, they can also be obtained by those who came from the same world as myself...Due to the Dark King being one of those people, and his spirit now inhabiting the boy himself, he could've easily taken them were it not for your friend's intervention..." "I see..." After listening to the Elemental Overlord's explanation, Alex found that there was one detail in particular that stuck out to him. "Wait, so the Dark King was born on the same planet that you came from?" He asks. "...That is correct. We were both born on the same planet, our destinies intertwined by the three intertwining threads of the gods themselves. With my blade I executed the will of Heaven itself, cutting down evil on worlds that were on the brink of annihilation. The Dark King was my polar opposite...He was to summon all manners of evil creatures on planets that were overflowing with good intentions. Even though we sometimes disagreed with the choices we made, we never once interfered with the other's duties, and our actions ensured a perfect balance between the realms of light and dark. That's the sad truth about those whose very existence centers around darkness though...They eventually succumb to it. Driven mad by jealously and contempt, he led a massive army to wipe out both me...And the rest of our home world as well. I raised my own army in retaliation, and confronted the Dark King to decide the universe's fate. It was hard for me at first to fight seriously...Were I to finish off the Dark King, I would be committing the greatest sin of all..."

"How so? It sounds to me like the Dark King was a monster that needed to be put down..." Alex says in response. "If you would silence yourself and let me finish I can answer your damn question!" The Elemental Overlord exclaims in an angered tone, his spiritual orb thrusting itself forward suddenly so it's right in front of Alex's face. This action causes the boy to stumble back in fear, and the orb floats back to it's original location. "...I'm sorry, that was rather rude of me." The Overlord says in a polite, apologetic tone. "...Hmm, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you empty-handed in regards to my tale for now though. I can sense the discord that's coming from above, and the pressure extruding from it is increasing with each passing second..." "I understand." Alex responds. "I hate to thrust this question onto you during this hour of crisis...But if you feel that you will be unable to live up to my name, then you have the option to decline my powers." The Elemental Overlord notes.

"Are you kidding?" Alex responds, inserting a small laugh at the very end of his sentence. "My mind was made up even before Joe Dark appeared." The boy then flexes his right arm out in front of his body and tightly clenches his hand into the shape of a fist. "I will accept your divine powers without any second thoughts. If I stray off the proper path though, then you can do whatever you see fit to punish me." Even though he does not have eyes in this form, one could tell that the Overlord's spirit orb was staring into the boy's own eyes, looking long and hard to see if he was truly convicted to this cause. "...Very well. There is no turning back now. You cannot take back the words you have spoken, nor can you run from destiny's cold grip...I will now bestow onto you the power to control all elements!" The spirit of the Elemental Overlord flies through the air towards Alex. The boy holds both of his arms out as the orb of light is absorbed into his body, causing him to release a powerful glow that covers the entire realm.

As all of these events are transpiring down below, the rest of the heroes can be seen standing on the roof of the temple. The fog has been lifted, allowing the sun to project it's light down onto them. The rays do not shine down for long though, as a massive grey cloud covers the celestial source of heat and casts a shadow down onto the land. Joe Dark floats down from the sky, raising his hand up towards the cloud as the sound of thunder can be heard roaring in the distance. "This is a fitting battlefield..." The boy lowers his head to stare down at the determined group, amused by their futile efforts. "You better have taken a good long look at the sun, for this is the last day that you will ever see it." Once he speaks out, he lands on the ground, his aura of darkness appearing once more as he does.

"I must admit, I find it rather interesting how all of you are acting so brave right now, especially when just a few moments ago you were all scared shitless!" Alpha steps forward and holds his right hand to his chest. "You can say whatever you wish to say, demon child, but if you think we are just going to stand idly by and let you intimidate us so you can accomplish your unsympathetic desires then there is only one place your headed, and that's Hell." Listening to the Goomba's courageous boast, Joe Dark rears his head back and erupts into laughter. "HAHAHAHA! Oh my goodness, that's such a rich choice of words there Goomba...Tell me, do you even believe what you are saying? Do you honestly believe that even with all of you working together, what with your idiotic 'Power of Friendship', you can hope to scratch me let alone KILL me?" "No, they don't need to fight you. I'M the one you want, Joe Dark!"

Recognizing the voice as Alex's, the heroes step back as a steady wall of flames rise up from the hole in the floor. Joe Dark, however, approaches the flames, waiting in anticipation for the target of his malice to appear before him. When the boy finally appears, one could tell that he had changed. Though his physical appearance remained the same, as he rises up and stares down at Joe Dark, the heroes feel an aura of confidence radiating around him. "This is what I have waited for...You are the one I've wanted to face for so long!" Joe Dark says in unison with the demonic presence that floats behind his body. Alex lowers his eyelids and holds one arm out in front of his body and summons forth a small yet bright flame in the palm of his hand. "It has been two millennium since the flame that governed these worlds had been extinguished, having sacrificed itself to burn away the darkness that sought to devour all in its grasp. Now, from the very ashes of death that flame has been reborn inside of me. I now wield the name that was granted to the former owner of these powers, and with them I will end your life before you can harm anyone on this planet!" As Alex finishes his speech, Joe Dark summons a dagger from the realm of darkness and slashes the tip of it out in front of his throat, then brandishes the weapon at the boy, noticing the faint presence of the former Elemental Overlord's spirit floating behind him. "Then come at me Whiter! Come at me, and die!"

_Next Time: The Early Signs of Hope_


	44. Chapter 44

**Chapter 44: Joe Dark I: A Destroyed Hope**

_"You see now? The Elemental Overlord has been revived...History is doomed to repeat itself, and it's all thanks to that witch for toying around instead of taking things seriously!" "Hahaha...I find your antics amusing, my hard headed companion. While it is true that the boy has now inherited the strength of the Elemental Overlord, you must surely realize that he lacks the experience necessary to use it all properly. Already he is being flung into battle, and against someone like our master he won't last very long...So be quiet now, for the threads of fate will weave together an amazing spectacle for us to enjoy in the comfort of this realm." "...Very well jester, let us watch and see just how this boy has adapted to our master's powers."_

Back on the temple rooftop, the pillar of flames that rests behind Alex's floating body die down, the fires themselves retreating into the hole beneath his feet. The boy floats down towards the ground on the opposite side of where Joe Dark is currently standing at. After the Genesis Samurais stare in awe at the sight of their reborn master, Zeno Blaze nervously steps forward to greet the boy, but upon hearing the sound of his armor clanking with each step he takes Alex extends his arm out, causing him to stop in place. "It's alright my son, you do not need to say anything..." A mysterious voice calls out to the samurai. Though he does not know the origin of it, he is able to recognize it as the voice of his father, the Elemental Overlord. A rush of emotions overcomes Zeno's mind, and under his breath you can hear him stuttering the word "Father" to himself. Honoring his father's wishes, the young samurais steps back to return to where he once stood, lowering his head in reverence for him.

The demonic presence behind Joe Dark rises into the air, a pair of piercing dark red eyes appearing on what looks to be the face of the beast. "So, you have come back as well, Overlord." The voice speaks in a menacing tone towards Alex. In reality though, he is actually speaking to the spirit of the Overlord that is floating behind the boy. "Yes. Though I was rather hoping it would not have come to this." The orb of light floats into the air above Alex's head to meet the Dark King's spirit eye to eye. "You took my spirit, my very essence of life itself, and trapped it in that accursed abyss! And then you took my body and tossed it into the hottest sun you could find, just to make sure I couldn't repossess it!" As the Dark King continues to speak, Joe Dark's lips move to match up with what he says in perfect harmony. "It was necessary. Had I not done that, the stars would've collapsed, the planets would've been cracked into a million pieces, and eventually the vast realm of space itself would've been nothing more than a blank, lifeless canvas for the very gods themselves to paint anew."

"Hahaha...A foolish effort in the grand scheme of things though. All you did was delay the inevitable by about two millennium." "Is that so? You plan to go through with your previous plan even though the remnants of your army have now been either scattered, sealed, or killed, and by using that boy as your puppet?" "This boy is not my puppet, such an amusing thing for you to say my once living adversary...I do not need to control him in order to defeat your little inexperienced successor. Do you not understand? Deep inside of this boy rests a hatred for him that surpasses and suppresses any other emotion in his body. He has tossed away all of his joy, his tranquility, and even his compassion for others besides himself. And he went through this transform by his own accord, my old friend. Once we finish our talk, we shall retreat into the bodies of those who wield our powers, and you shall watch helplessly from the realm of the beyond as the one who inherited your will shall succumb to the hands of death that my successor now wields."

The Dark King's spirit turns his attention towards Alex, and is surprised to find that the boy shows no fear, instead he chooses to stare the spirit straight in the eyes with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Ahahaha..." The spirit laughs in a calm, chilling tone. "You are just like him. And that is merely one of the reasons why you shall lose your life here today..." "Then retreat into the body of the one that keeps you chained to this world, spirit of a fallen king, and I will gladly prove you wrong on the field of battle just like the Elemental Overlord did to you over two millenniums ago." The Dark King lets out a quiet, beastly growl, somewhat displeased with the overconfident attitude that the boy continues to display before him. But he decides that talking to him is a waste of his time, and slowly begins to retreat into Joe Dark's body. The Elemental Overlord does the same, his spirit returning to the body of Alex Whiter.

Joe Dark, after regaining control of his body, once again points his dagger at his mortal enemy, his eyes wide open with an unholy feeling of excitement being projected from them, and just like earlier he gets a demonic looking grin on his face. Unbeknownst to the two warriors, while the spirits of the two former deities were speaking to each other, time had completely grinded to a halt all around them. Not a single mortal on this world, or any world for that matter, would ever know that it wasn't just the powers that these two boys had obtained, but also the fact that the two deities' spirits now dwelled within their bodies as well. Alex extends his right arm out to the side and waves his fingers backwards. The rest of the group is able to recognize that as a sign that they should step as far back as possible so they don't end up getting killed in the ensuing clash between both him and Joe Dark.

"How touching, even though you know death is here to rightfully end your life, you want to make sure that either you or I don't end up harming your 'friends' by 'accident' during our battle. Such a pity that once I finish you off, there will be no one left to give me a proper challenge, so I'll enjoy taking my time in killing all of them ...One, by, one..." The two warriors stare each other straight in the eye as they begin to slowly circle around the hole in the floor. Both wait for the right opportunity to strike, but as he waits Joe Dark decides to try and break Alex's resolve. He takes his dagger and places the dull edge of it on his chin, the tip of it pointed at the lower part of his lip. He then slips his now serpentine tongue through both lips and wraps it around the upper part of his weapon. He then stares at Whiter with a ghastly blank look in his eyes, and creepily opens his mouth to speak to him. "The feeling of metal on my tongue is very...Unsatisfactory...I hope the blood you spill will at least satisfy my lust, Whiter..."

Alex does not flinch, despite the fact that he knew that Joe Dark was being serious with his comment just now. With a disappointed sigh, Joe Dark's tongue retreats into his mouth, and he lowers the arm that his dagger is in so the weapon is now pointed diagonally at the ground. "Heh...I suppose mere words will not make your face freeze with fear..." Joe Dark tightly grasps his dagger in his hand, his dark aura reappearing around his body as a bolt of lightning roars down from the clouds above and strikes the ground behind him. Alex's aura flares back into existence, and in his right hand appears a blade forged from the fire's of the gods themselves. The sword is a golden color, the weapon shining as brightly as the sun itself. The handle has four red rings tightly wrapped around it, with the bottom tip being a small, yellow sphere. The sword is set on fire in the presence of Alex's aura, and as he turns his body around to hold the weapon out horizontally in front of him, Joe Dark makes his move by swiftly lunging through the air at the boy, taking his dagger and slamming it into the dull side of the blade.

Applying as much pressure as he possibly can, the Dark King tries his hardest to either snap the blade in half, or force Whiter to pull it back in recoil. All the while, Joe Dark's eyes are burning with a feeling of intense madness. "Instead, I'll just fight until I can pry the screams free from your fear stricken body, Whiter!" It takes but a few more seconds, but the vile boy is successful in forcing Alex to pull his blade back behind his back. While he's defenseless, the insane young boy holds his dagger back behind his head while he laughs maniacally, then proceeds to thrust his weapon at his enemy's head while still holding it tightly in his hand, hoping to pierce through his skull and hit the center of his brain. But to his surprise Alex gets a cocky grin on his face, as it turns out that he hadn't lost the strength to hold back Joe Dark's assault, but instead had chosen to pull his blade away in order to get a free opportunity to strike him while his guard is down.

With a quick horizontal slash across Joe Dark's face, the young Overlord thinks that he has already decided the battle in one blow. But to his horror, he finds that not only has Joe Dark's head been twisted 120 degrees to the left, but his face has not suffered a single scratch. "No way..." Alex says in utter disbelief. "What, did you honestly expect to harm me with a blade as dull as that one? I must admit though...This is a slight inconvenience for me..." Joe Dark takes both hands and clenches them into fists, then presses both of them against the sides of his head. He twists his head back into the proper position, and if one were to listen in closely they would hear the sound of his spine cracking as it adjusts itself back to normal. Alex, despite having a perfect opportunity to attack him then and there, is too overcome with fear due to the fact that even though his opponent has the body of a human, in actuality he has now become nothing more than an unholy monstrosity.

Alex takes a few steps back, but quickly stops himself from going any further once he realizes how foolish his actions are. "No, I can't turn my back now..." He thinks to himself, turning his head to look at the group, who are simply standing still with hope in their hearts that he will win this battle. "I got too much at stake..." The look in the boy's eyes goes back to being one of determination, and he cleaves part of the floor beside him with the tip of his blade before flipping his weapon around so it's pointed diagonally at the ground behind him. Once he's done fixing his head, Joe Dark pays attention to Whiter's brief moment of cowardice and holds both of his arms out in front of him, dispelling the dagger back into the realm of darkness with only a mere thought. "Too bad you didn't choose to run away, it would've been a lot more interesting than seeing you try and put up a fight like you are now..." He then gets a grin on his face, but that quickly vanishes once Whiter speaks to him. "Do you plan on killing me using nothing but words, or are we going to continue our fight?" Seeing as though Whiter is still unwilling to back down, Joe Dark withdraws his hands back to the side of his body and closes his eyes. It doesn't even look like he's taking the situation seriously. "Hahaha...Very well, we shall speak to each other no longer. But please, at least try and force me to break a sweat, ok?"

Alex jumps back and holds his left hand into the air, pulling the hydrogen atoms out from within the darkened clouds above and combining all of them together along with a fair share of air to form a medium sized orb of water. He then tosses the orb into the air, aiming it so it ends up looming high above Joe Dark's head. The insane boy lifts his head up, eagerly waiting to see what Whiter has planned for this. Alex quickly closes his hand into the shape of a fist, and the orb of water bursts, causing hundreds of droplets to rain down upon Joe Dark. As they approach him, Alex shapes the droplets so they look like little needles, then deep freezes the air surrounding them in order to solidify their form. To deal with this incoming storm of icy needles, Joe Dark sways his body to the right to avoid the first few, then surrounds his left hand with dark energy and waves it out in front of him, briefly creating a thin shield of darkness to block the next wave of needles. He does the same thing again with his other hand to block the third wave, then while both hands are held near his left thigh he creates two black orbs with a dark purple aura surrounding them and flings them consecutively towards the center of the remaining needles. The two orbs collide with each other and merge to create a gravitational pull that's strong enough to drag in and destroy the remaining ice needles. Once it's job is done the orb collapses into itself until it eventually vanishes without a trace.

Then, as Joe Dark re-adjusts his body back to it's normal standing position and begins to brush his hands together, two slabs of stone collide with both the front and back of his body. While heis trapped between them, Alex dispels his sword in a blaze of fire and lifts both of his arms above his head, claps both hands together, and charges them full of electricity. Once fully charged he clenches both hands into a fist shape and slams them down onto the ground, sending out an arrow shaped bolt of lightning that tears up the floor as it propels itself towards it's target. Before it strikes it's target though the two stone slabs are blown to bits due to Joe Dark overloading them with dark energy that's flowing through his hands. He twists his head to the left, and upon noticing the incoming electric attack he turns the rest of his body around and jumps into the air to avoid it. Alex lifts his head up and grits his teeth in annoyance once he sees that his opponent managed to escape unscathed once more, but quickly adapts to the situation by dispelling the electric energy surrounding both of his hands and opening them up to place them flat against the ground.

The temple begins to rumble, and a few seconds later parts of the floor cave in underneath Joe Dark, as the heads of two venus flytraps emerge from below and quickly rises up to clamp their mouths down onto the evil boy's arms. Unlike the previous attempts to harm him, this move of Alex's causes Joe Dark to briefly discard that look of arrogance that he had on during the battle so far, as he struggles to rip the plants off of his arms. For good measure, Alex summons forth two more venus flytraps that clamp themselves around the lower half of Joe Dark's legs. This prevents him from attempting to wiggle himself free of the "chains" that bind him. Now that everything was in place, the young Overlord stands up and holds his left hand out and begins to slowly create a sharp, smooth icicle shaped projectile that floats right above his palm. As he waits for it to finish forming, he pulls his body back in order to build up enough force necessary to pierce Joe Dark's blackened heart, with the projectile staying aligned with his hand as he moves back.

Then comes the moment of truth. Once it's completed Alex thrusts his body and left hand forward to send the icicle spiraling towards the suspended boy of darkness. This is when a spark of anger can be seen flaring up deep within Joe Dark's eyes. From the center of his body appears a tiny air filled orb of darkness. This single orb begins to grow in size, until soon enough the edge of it makes contact with the venus flytraps that are keeping his arms held in place. The orb causes the molecules that make up the plant to die off, slowly but surely erasing it from existence. Then the ice projectile slams into the orb and begins to go through the same process of molecular deconstruction that the plants are experiencing. After one short yet loud grunt from Joe Dark, the orb quickly expands until it encompasses a three meter wide area and dispels.

The remnants of the vines that once kept the venus flytraps hanging high in the air become limp and fall back down from whence they came. Joe Dark then slowly floats downward until the bottom of his feet make contact with the ground. Alex stares on in fear, his body grasping for air as that last move of his depleted what little remained of his energy. "This is the extent of your power? Of course, it is to be expected, you only received that divine gift but a few minutes ago. Even though you know a few basic techniques and have figured out how to combine them, in the end you haven't gotten enough power to be able to use them for long...Isn't that right, Whiter?" Joe Dark talks down to Alex, hoping to instill even more fear into his already slow beating heart. What's worse is that the boy knew that his nemesis was correct. "A pity, truly a pity...But I shall commend you though...Your last move forced me to use twenty-five percent of my power, an impressive feat for a newly born god, wouldn't you say?"

"T-twenty five percent?" Alex exclaims in surprise, his eyes widening in fear at the same time. Joe Dark slowly begins to advance towards Whiter with a psychotic grin on his face. "You see Whiter, this whole time I've only been 'fighting' you using ten percent of my power. You, on the other hand, went all out from the beginning in a foolish attempt to finish me off before I could unleash my full strength." Alex summons his sword once more and holds it out in front of him, but this action only manages to cause the psychotic boy to giggle at his futility. "Enough of this..." He murmurs to himself. Once he speaks his body vanish into nothingness. Alex hears blood curling screams coming from his right and assumes that Joe Dark is going to attack him there, but as soon as he turns his body towards that direction his opponent appears to the left of him and grabs a hold of his arm with both hands. Before Alex even has the time to grasp the situation, Joe Dark begins to bend limb backwards, the young boy screaming in pain as he can feel his muscles being torn apart and the bones near his elbow beginning to snap from the pressure.

Eventually Joe Dark hears a loud snap coming from beneath the skin and proceeds to let go of the boy. The flaming sword vanishes in an instant, and though his left arm has now become limp the pain he feels coming from it intensifies with each passing second. What he feels now is nothing compared to what he will soon be experiencing though. Joe Dark re-summons his dagger and holds the tip of the blade against the center of Whiter's back, just a few centimeters away from where the spine is located. Using all of his strength, the evil boy pushes his weapon right into his body, penetrating both his shirt and the skin that rests beneath it. Alex's head begins to throb from the excruciating pain that his nervous system is being subjected to, he feels his vision going feint as blood begins to drip from the edges of the dagger wound. Then he feels the cold tip of the weapon touching the wall of his heart, and for a moment he feels like his body has completely shut down.

Joe Dark withdraws his dagger from his body though and whips it around so it's pointed at him. He lifts his hand up and holds the weapon near his lips, slipping his tongue through them and licking the blood he acquired with an all too satisfied look on his face. Once he's done, he looks at Whiter, all tired and broken after only two attacks. "See Whiter, this is the difference between you and me..." Joe Dark flips his dagger around once more and holds the arm that wields high over his head. "You are weak...Because you have never experienced true pain..." The evil boy then slashes Whiter across the back diagonally, causing the boy to scream out in pain. But he does not stop at just one slash. No, Joe Dark continues to rapidly slash the boy's back, laughing maniacally all the way as he does it. Eventually it gets to the point that Alex falls on his knees and places his only working hand flat onto the ground, his eyes beginning to drip tears of blood as the pain becomes too unbearable for him to deal with anymore. Joe Dark withdraws his weapon, closes his eyes, and shakes his head in disbelief.

"This is the fate of the weak...They rest on their knees and bow before their king. A fitting and degrading end for you Whiter, considering the title I am now in possession of..." Joe Dark raises his foot and delivers a powerful kick to Whiter's posterior, sending him flying through the air until he lands helplessly a few meters near the edge of the roof. He is not able to move, not a single breath seems to be coming from his mouth, and blood is still slowly leaking out from the dagger wound from earlier. "Now then Whiter...DIE!" Joe Dark pulls out his dagger once again and charges towards the fallen Overlord. The heroes close their eyes, unable to bear the thought of watching this frightening scene unfold. But from beyond the darkness of their closed vision, they hear the a loud clinging sound. Opening their eyes, they are surprised to see Zeno Blaze standing before Joe Dark with his out held katana managing to block the evil boy's dagger. Standing on both sides of him are the rest of the Genesis Samurais, who have drawn their weapons and are ready for battle with unwavering looks of determination plastered onto their faces.

Joe Dark dispels his dagger and flies backwards, avoiding a quick slash from the young samurai and landing on the ground with a look of surprise being clearly visible in his eyes. "That's enough Dark King, or whoever is the name of the boy whom you have chosen as your successor...Attempt to lay another finger on our master, and you'll be burned until your ashes can no longer be seen!" Joe Dark stares at the seven gathered warriors, then closes his eyes and lowers his head, pressing the fingers on his right hand against his forehead and beginning to laugh uncontrollably. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! Are you serious? HAHAHAHAHA!" The evil boy manages to get a hold of himself and after placing both of his arms back at the sides of his body, stares once more at the warriors and gets another arrogant grin on his forehead. "Until this day none of you had never even met Whiter, and now you are going to toss your lives away for him just because he inherited the powers of your deceased master?"

"….It's true that we know nothing about the boy besides his name...It may be possible that the prophecy was mistaken and he may not actually be the one who deserved to claim his powers..." As he speaks Zeno looks over his shoulder as the rest of the heroes run over to check up on Alex. "But on the off-chance that he is the rightful heir, we are all willing to sacrifice our very bodies themselves in order to give him the chance to survive and learn his true potential!" Zeno brandishes his weapon out at Joe Dark, who stands still as the aura of darkness that surrounds him begins to slowly dissipate. "You are all fools...Whiter will die from the wounds I inflicted upon him anyways, so your efforts are in vain no matter what you reasons are!" "I say you're the fool, Dark King. Though his body may be weak, his soul still lives. And as long as that's alive, then he shall live as well!" After Zeno's speech, Joe Dark finds himself becoming increasingly angered by his continuous persistence. "Fine...You want to defend Whiter? Then defend him as much as you like, you insufferable, honor bound fools! Use your weapons, your bodies, your souls and even call forth the very stars themselves to use as shields to protect him! I will devour not only all of those, BUT YOUR INSANE IDEALS AS WELL!"

_Next Time: Despair Never Ends_


	45. Chapter 45

**Chapter 45: Joe Dark II: Silencing of the Souls**

The battlefield is silent. The Genesis Samurais stare down their opponent, the malicious wielder of the Dark King's powers himself, Joe Dark. The boy himself waits for his opponents to strike first, at the same time he focuses his attention on the seven other heroes who are watching over his defeated arch-nemesis, Alex Whiter. One of the heroes, Alpha, is using a form of laser surgery to seal up the wounds on the boy's back to prevent any further blood loss. After a few seconds have passed by, Joe Dark turns his attention back towards the seven gathered warriors. "What are you waiting for? Attack me together, or attack me one at a time...Doesn't matter what you choose to do, but just know that I grow tiresome with each passing second..."

Zeno holds his katana to the side of his body, and though his mind is filled with a multitude of ideas on how to approach this situation he is unable to pick one in particular due to not knowing much about how Joe Dark fights. Having reached his limit of patience, the demon child holds his right arm out and bends it so his fist is level with his eyes, and surrounds said fist with an aura of darkness. "Very well...Then I shall decide for you!" Only an instant after he finishes speaking does Joe Dark vanish from view, which causes the seven warriors to turn around in preparation for a possible attack from behind. Instead, they notice the evil boy plummeting fist first above them. All at once the seven warriors jump backwards as he impacts with the ground in front of them, sending out a burst of dark flames that surrounds his body before vanishing in an instant. A shockwave of darkness thrusts itself out from around the evil boy's body, and though the older, more agile warriors are more than capable of back-flipping over it, the younger ones are unable to do so in time and are quickly knocked into the air.

While they are defenseless, Joe Dark once again vanishes from view, reappearing behind Acia Rose a few seconds later. One swift kick to her back is all it takes for her to be sent spiraling towards her sister-in-arms Tina Aqua. Using his incredible speed, he is able to reappear behind the warrior of water in an instant and do the same thing to her as he did to the warrior of nature. The two warriors collide head first with each other while still in mid-air, the top of their skulls cracking slightly from the force of the impact. As all this is happening Pitori Sparks is able to regain his composure due to his armor absorbing most of the impact from the attack. He then looks on in shock as his two young female comrades fall to the ground, their bodies lying flat with only the sight of their fingers twitching ensuring the young man that they are still alive.

Joe Dark then appears behind him, his very presence causing the hairs on the back of his neck to perk up in fear and a cold sweat to start trickling down his forehead. "Those two were butting heads with each other in a metaphorical sense before I revealed myself to you...And now I've killed them by having them butt heads in a physical sense..." Pitori's body begins to tremble as he tightly grips his hand around the trigger of his rifle. "They're not dead...I can still detect that their nervous system is functioning properly..." The armored boy quickly turns himself around and pushes the end of his rifle's barrel against Joe Dark's forehead. "SO DON'T TRY AND SCARE ME WITH YOUR TRICKS, BASTARD!" Pitori pulls the trigger, a quiet clicking sound is heard, followed by a loud, piercing bang. The shot was so powerful that it caused him to recoil back and closes his eyes.

It takes a few mere moments to recover, but he will soon have wished that he didn't open his eyes afterwards...Joe Dark still stands before him, and even though the shot was fired at point blank he does not having a single sign of a bullet wound anywhere on his face, instead all he has on him is an amused little grin. "That's I-I-I-Impossible..." Pitori stutters quietly to himself. "No, no it's not..." Joe Dark lifts his left hand up and folds all but his thumb and pointer finger into the palm, then presses the pointer finger against the left side of his head. "Yes, it's true that a shot to the head would've been enough to kill me...But you were so unhinged by fear that you hesitated to fire." He then takes his left hand and points it at the fear-stricken boy. "Unluckily for you..." As a small ball of darkness appears on the tip of his pointer finger, the area begins to tremble as it begins to grow in size. Joe Dark has a creepy, joyous looking grin on his face as he watches the boy do nothing to try and stop him. "I do not hesitate..."

Before he can fire off his attack, a chunk of the temple's roof collides with Joe Dark's arm, causing the position of his arm to be changed so it's now pointing diagonally towards the sky. As the mass of rock shatters a huge, pitch-black cylinder shaped beam is fired from his finger tip. The beam travels through the sky and cuts through the storm clouds above. Once the beam vanishes some new clouds form to take the place of the ones that were lost. Though he failed to hit his target Joe Dark does not show any signs of anger nor disappointment. Instead, he calmly lowers his arm back down to the side of his body and turns his head to look for the one who tossed the rock at him. Not surprisingly, the one responsible is the muscular Ezekiel Gaia, who then rubs his palms together to brush off any dirt that had gathered on them. The other adult warriors gather around him and point their weapons at the reborn Dark King. Zeno turns his head slightly to the left in order to look at Pitori.

Out of the corner of his eye the frightened Pitori can see his superior looking at him. Turning his head to look at him, he sees his eyes quickly move towards the direction where Acia and Tina are currently laying at. He then slightly nudges his head in that direction before returning his attention towards Joe Dark. Understanding the order that was just given to him, Pitori floats down to help re-energize his two fallen comrades. This movement does not escape the demon child's line of sight, and he holds his right hand out without turning his head to look at his target, charging up another sphere of dark energy while an evil grin appears on his face. He fires the sphere at Pitori once it's finished charging all the way. The attack doesn't even come close to hitting it's desired target, as hundreds of tiny wind blades fly through the air and cut the orb to shreds. These blades were called forth by a single swipe of Darnia Stratos' scythe. After this attack, he stands tall once more and spins his weapon around so the top of the blade rests against the ground.

Joe Dark chooses to ignore the younglings for now, instead opting to focus his attention on the more physically adapt adults, thinking that they'll be able to provide him with a little more entertainment than the rest. As he floats down he holds out his right hand and calls forth his dagger from the darkness once more and brandishes it at his opponents. Once he lands on the ground he holds his other hand out and wiggles his fingers to taunt the warriors into attacking him. Not a single word is exchanged between both forces. All four warriors charge at the Dark King, and he does the same. Zeno's katana connects with the cold steel of Joe Dark's dagger, the two meeting eye to eye for only a second before they withdraw their weapons and jump back, with the demon boy ready to lash out at Zeno once his guard is lowered.

To his surprise, Zeno sheathes his blade and holds his hands out to the side of his body, creating two small, pulsating orbs of flames in front of their palms. Before he can strike out with his dagger, Joe Dark is forced helplessly into the air by a tornado that has just spawned below his feet. As he spins around in the air, Cecilia Frost draws energy from the cold breeze in the air through the tip of her lance. Once she's ready, she flings her weapon through the air, propelling it towards the ground with enough force that a cold, thin vapor trail is left behind as the weapon spirals towards it's destination. It then becomes stuck in the ground right below the tornado, and the cold air that was built up within is released all at once into the miniature natural disaster.

Cecilia then commands the frozen air to solidify all at once, changing the tornado into a twisted, frozen sculpture with Joe Dark trapped helplessly in the very center of it. While the imprisoned Dark King struggles to break free of his confines, Ezekiel leaps into the air, raises his left fist behind his back and let's gravity take hold so he can begin to rapidly plummet downward to strike his target. Once he's close enough, Ezekiel thrusts his fist into Joe Dark's face. Though the attack packs the force of a magnitude ten earthquake behind it, the muscular man makes sure that said power only surges through the icy tornado. As the sculpture shatters instantaneously, Ezekiel back flips out of the way as Zeno thrusts his hands forward and unleashes a massive circular beam of flames that burns across the roof and scorches the airborne and helpless Joe Dark. Before the flaming beam is fired off though, Cecilia calls her lance back into her hand.

Ezekiel lands on the ground and cracks his knuckles as the flame beam begins to die off. Black smoke rises out of the ground, and Zeno takes the time to brush a sweat drop off of his forehead with his right hand. He turns his head to the left, and watches as Acia and Tina begin to wake up from their prolonged state of unconsciousness thanks to Pitori's efforts. "We won..." The young samurai says to himself with a smile on his face. "Is that so?" The Genesis Samurais freeze in place and slowly turn their attention towards a human shaped shadow that begins to rise from behind the blackened veil of smoke. As it vanishes, the warriors are horrified to see that Joe Dark is not only alive, but save for a couple light burn marks he looks completely unharmed.

The Dark King raises his head high into the air and twists it to the left so his eyes are staring creepily at Zeno's face. Then he lowers his head and lifts his left hand up, spitting a single tooth out of his mouth that lands directly onto his palm. After spending a few seconds examining it he tightly closes his fingers and atomizes it with the powers of darkness. He then lowers his hand back to the side of his body and quietly laughs to himself. "A maginitude ten punch to the face cost me a tooth...A beam of fire only gives me a burn mark or two? Amazing that you worms have managed to cause more harm to me than Whiter did...Now..." The evil boy holds one of his left fingers out in front of his body and slowly turns around, pointing once at each of the seven warriors as he does so. After glaring at them all, he lowers his arm back down and raises one arm on the opposite side of his body into the air, pointing a single finger at the floating Cecilia. "You...You'll do just fine." He says with a creepy grin.

One second later, Joe Dark vanishes into thin air. Cecilia quickly overcomes her fears and raises her lance to defend herself. The reborn Dark King appears in front of her and thrusts both of his open hands out, smashing them both against the frozen weapon. As he quickly withdraws his hands the lance begins to crack down the center. Relentless in his assault, Joe Dark takes no time in clenching his left fingers into a fist shape and punching the lance where the bottom of the crack is, causing them to spread even further. Cecilia lowers her head and closes her eyes, whimpering and shaking in fear with each attack that Joe Dark hits her weapon with. The Dark King finishes his onslaught by taking his left hand and chopping down the center of the lance. Due to how weakened it's structure had become, it breaks apart with ease. The lady of ice reacts to this development by turning her head around and opening her eyes to stare directly into the frenzied eyes of the demonic child.

Now defenseless, Cecilia is able to do nothing as Joe Dark holds all of his fingers out besides his body and swiftly jabs them towards her chest. His hand cuts through her shirt, passes through the gap between her breasts, then pierces through both her skin and the muscles that rest underneath, causing her nervous system to flare up in pain and making her release a loud, blood curling scream at the top of her lungs. The Dark King stops his hand one inch away from her heart, then slowly lifts her higher into the air. With his arm pushing against her flesh, the unbearable, agonizing feelings of pain continue to plague both her mind and body. Joe Dark raises his head and stares into Cecilia's cold, blood dripping eyes. His fanged, demonic teeth present in his all too familiar maniacal grin, and his eyes burning with a pleasurable feeling of satisfaction. "Before you die..." The skin on his face peels back, revealing a blood drenched, beast shaped demon face behind it. "This will be the last thing you shall see..." He says with a deep, demonic tone in his voice. No one but Cecilia can see the frightening illusion of this truly hellish creature. This horrific, madness inducing nightmare would break even the strongest of men...But there was no point in Joe Dark doing this to the lady of ice, for her mind had already been broken by the grip of fear itself. Showing no remorse for what he is doing to this once proud, brave warrior, Joe Dark decides that he has made her suffer enough and moves his hand forward to finish her off. Tapping one finger on her heart, the blood pumping organ stops it's rapid beating all at once as dark energy begins to surge around it. The Dark King quickly pulls her hand out of her body, and in an instant her heart bursts, sending blood spewing out onto his shirt. With nothing capable of keeping her alive in her body anymore, her eyes slowly become filled with blood as the rest of her lifeless husk falls backwards and starts to plummet towards the ground below.

The remaining warriors, who witnessed the entire spectacle unfold knowing full well that they could do nothing to save their comrade, have realized now just how impossible it is for them to achieve victory against this nether worldly foe. The one who was most affected by the death of Cecilia Frost is Pitori, who stares up at Joe Dark as his body starts shaking violently. His body is not shivering out of fear though. No, to this boy the only emotion he can feel at this time is the feeling of pure, unbridled, rage towards the reborn Dark King. He tightly clenches both of his fists as tears of anger begin to trickle down his cheek from behind the view of his visor. Standing up on his two feet, the young boy quickly raises his rifle and aims it so it's pointed straight at Joe Dark's head. "YOU KILLED MY MOTHER! NOW BURN IN HELL, YOU GODDAMN HELLSPAWN!" Pitori fires off a lightning powered bullet that speeds through the air to pierce it's target. But the bullet only bounces off of the side of Joe Dark's head, failing to put even in a dent in his skin. This causes the evil boy to turn his body around to take notice of the one firing off the shots, just in time for another bullet to bounce off of the front of his face. Having become so consumed by rage, Pitori has lost all sense of reason, and continues to rapidly fire bullets at Joe Dark as he begins to descend down towards him. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" That one word expresses his emotions perfectly, this mixture of sorrow and hatred has created a raging storm within his mind that has no hope of ever being quelled.

Though his anger is never ending, the same can not be said for his armor's power supply. As Joe Dark lands right in front of him, the only thing that allowed him to fight vanishes back into the bracelet from which is came. It takes a few seconds for Pitori to realize what has happened, and a few more after that to also realize that the man he so greatly hates at this moment is now standing right before his very eyes. He stares at his hands now left without a weapon, he clenches his fingers into a fist and thrusts it at the grinning Joe Dark's face. The Dark King catches his punch in mid-air with ease, but Pitori is stubborn to the end and tries to punch him with his other fist, only for his efforts to be foiled just as easily as before by Joe Dark using another his other hand to catch it. Grinning in joy at the sight of Pitori being consumed by such wonderful, negative emotions, he greatly tightens his grip on the boy's hands, applying so much pressure onto them that the bones underneath begin to crack.

"Ghhh...GRAAAHH!" Pitori tries to break free of Joe Dark's grip, but without his armor his strength is only the same as that of the average human. "Enough...There isn't anymore entertainment that I can possibly hope to get from you..." The Dark King tosses Pitori high into the air, using so much force that the boy's body is forced to spin helplessly in the sky. Joe Dark lifts his right hand high into the air and folds all but his pointer finger into the palm of his hand. "Bang." With just that single word a black and blue lightning bolt is fired out from his fingertip. Quickly moving through the air, the bolt makes contact with the very center of Pitori's forehead, burning through both his skin, skull, and brain until it comes out of the other side of his head before vanishing into the clouds above. "Two down..." Joe Dark says with a creepy, pleased tone in his voice as Pitori's lifeless body slams down onto the ground behind him.

A plethora of vines erupt out from underneath the ground and quickly latch themselves around the entirety of Joe Dark's body, covering all but his face. The Dark King looks out with an intrigued look on his face, watching as the tearful Acia Rose stands up with her hands clenched tightly out in front of her body to command the vines to crush him with all their might. Tina raises her arms up into the sky to call forth a bombardment of acid rain drops from the clouds above. Unphased by the two girls efforts, Joe Dark summons forth an orb of darkness from his chest like he did before when Alex used the vines on him, quickly expanding it to not only atomize the plants that are wrapped around him, but to also reflect away the rain drops that were coming down upon him. Then he releases all the energy that was built up in the shield with one, powerful burst. This knocks the two girls onto their backs in an instant.

Joe Dark lands on the ground and quickly teleports in between the two warriors as they raise their heads. He summons a dagger in both hands and holds them near the far sides of their necks, the cold, steel tips touching the skin and sending a chill down their spines. Joe Dark doesn't allow the two of them to have any further reactions to their incoming demise, and swiftly slits their throats with his blades. Blood gushes out of them, and their bodies limp backwards as Joe Dark withdraws his weapons back into the darkness. He then quickly turns around and lifts his left arm up in order to block a powerful magnitude ten punch from Ezekiel. He then lifts his right arm up to block a scythe slash from Darnia. A feeling of unstoppable, righteous fury can be seen in their eyes. This very feeling feeds the emissary of darkness, greatly satisfying his lust for suffering and despair.

Joe Dark grabs onto the blade of Darnia's scythe and yanks it out of his hands with ease, then he flips it around and jabs the tip into the part of his chest where the right lung is. The weapon punctures the organ and drains out all of the air that rests within it. Without the ability to breathe, Darnia's face slow begins to turn blue from a lack of oxygen and he collapses onto the right side of his body, his weapon dislodging itself from where it was placed and vanishing in a puff of fog. Joe Dark then glances over his shoulders as the ground below him begins to tremble violently. Ezekiel holds his other fist behind his back as the veins on his forehead become increasingly visible with each passing second. "My comrades...Almost all of them have fallen...My beloved wife Cecilia...My son, Pitori...You killed both of them in cold blood, and now I'll end you even if I destroy this entire temple and myself in the process! FULL CONCENTRATION! MAGNITUDE TWENTY PUNCH!"

Ezekiel thrusts his fist out to strike the demonic child, but Joe Dark retaliates by turning his body around and meeting his fist mid-blow with a quick jab of his own fist. The force of his jab, though light as it may be, is enough to send the power contained in that "Magnitude Twenty Punch" surging back into his body. The bones in Ezekiel's arm shatter instantaneously, which greatly surprises the muscular man. As his arm limps off to the side of his body, Joe Dark takes his right hand and holds it out in front of Ezekiel's chest. "You are upset over her death? Then you can die the same way as your beloved did..." With a smile on his face, the Dark King thrusts his hand through the skin of his chest and wraps his fingers around his heart. Without even giving him a second to scream, he rips the bloody organ out of his body and crushes it in the palm of his hand, sending blood flying all over the area around him. Ezekiel falls faces first onto the ground, the frontal part of his head resting on the tip of Joe Dark's shoes.

The Dark King moves his foot out from underneath the fallen warrior's head, then turns his own head to the side to look at Zeno. The young samurai was so gripped by the hands of fear, that he was unable to even move as his comrades fell one after another. And now the Dark King begins to slowly advance towards him, yet now that he knows that his final moments are upon him, all he can do is smile, an act of which piques Joe Dark's curiosity. "What happened to your emotions of fear? You spoke so proudly, and now that death has come to take you away you choose to smile at the reaper?" Zeno takes his katana out and lays it flat against the ground. Then he raises his head high and proud and points one finger past Joe Dark's shoulders. The Dark King glances over his them to look at where he is pointing at.

Having finished doing their best in trying to heal Alex's wounds, the seven heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom are now standing in front of the fallen boy, and even though they have witnessed all of the horrific deaths unfold they show no signs of fear and instead choose to remain headstrong as they prepare to confront Joe Dark themselves. "Though you will have slain us all here today, Dark King, your victory will be nothing more than a hollow one." Zeno speaks out to Joe Dark, who turns his head back around and continues to advance towards the young samurai. "More of your brave speak? You're just an endless fountain of crap, aren't you?" He says, slowly becoming irritated by the samurai's continuing words of defiance. "Don't get me wrong, I know my body shall perish soon. It matters little to us honestly...We have long since been forgotten by the pages of history, our only purpose, our only reason for survival was to live to see the day where our master would be reborn into this world. We have fulfilled that duty, and none of us have stained our honor by fighting this futile battle against you. No, I say that our honor, the bravery we have shown here today, will forever be etched into the minds and hearts of those seven heroes that stand behind you who have, will and shall continue to protect this planet with their very lives at stake." Zeno closes his eyes and begins to concentrate as he finishes speaking.

"How touching." Joe Dark says in a calm tone. "But you speak as though those fools behind me will live to see tomorrow. No, I plan to make them suffer just as much as I made you and your comrades suffer, perhaps even more...With Whiter, your reborn 'master', out of the picture, there is nothing in the entire universe that can protect them from my everlasting wrath." "Well, if that's what you are willing to think...I only have two more things to say. One, you should know that by making enemies with those guys, you are only going to find yourself fighting against something that you will never have any hope of defeating, no matter how powerful you may truly be." "Ok." Joe Dark says in an uncaring tone of voice. "And what other drivel do you wish to spout before I purge you from this world?" Zeno's right hand is set on fire, and he opens it wide before quickly rising it up into the air. "Here's a present, consider it my last action in this mortal body of mine."

A ring of fire is carved into the ground around Joe Dark. From that ring emerges a massive pillar of flames that burns so high and bright that is cuts through the dark clouds above, allowing a little bit of sunlight to shine down onto the grim looking rooftop. Emerging from the flames like a demon straight out of hell, Joe Dark grips his dagger tightly in his right hand and dashes straight through the air towards Zeno Blaze. The samurai holds his arms out beside his body and closes his eyes. The Dark King makes one broad slash in the air, suddenly reappearing behind Zeno in an instant. After a single second many cut and slash marks appear all-around the young samurai's body. His armor cracks, the attack cutting deep enough to draw blood from the skin underneath. More blood gushes out of small slits in his arms and legs, and as his body falls back and he feels his last spark of life beginning to die down, he has only one thought in his mind. _"Dad...I'll be joining you...soon..."_ And with nothing left to say or think, his body lands flat on the ground, and not a single sound is made from the impact...

Joe Dark takes his dagger and licks the blood he drew from Zeno's body straight off of the tip. His eyes light up with a feeling of satisfaction, and as he dispels his dagger his mouth can be seen grinning from ear to ear. "Spicy..." He says in a chilling tone, that single word describing the taste of his victim's blood. He turns his body around to look at the remaining heroes. He teleports close to their location, and places both of his hands in his pants pockets. "That was a nice appetizer...Now let us get on with the main course..." Geno speaks out to Dark King. "We're not simply food that you can just devour to satisfy your hunger for revenge, Joe Dark!" Mallow follows up on Geno's speech with his own words. "Geno is right, we are living, breathing creatures. Each of us have our own purpose in this world, we have hopes, dreams, things and people to fight for!" Driad is the next to speak out. "Tell me Joe Dark, as you mercilessly slaughtered the Genesis Samurais, did you ever show respect for their resolve, their pride, or even their honor?" Luigi doesn't let the Dark King speak, instead choosing to answer the question for him. "You didn't. In fact, you did the exact opposite of that. You taunted them, playing on their fears and driving them to act impulsively for you own sick, twisted ends." Gemini talks next. "It sickens me that you can even call yourself a warrior. Those piercing, red eyes of yours show no signs of remorse. You aren't human, not in any sense of the word..." Alpha steps forward and begins to speak. "Simply put, we aren't going to let you escape this place alive. You've crossed the horizon, now we're gonna make you fall." Finally, Mario has one last thing to add on to all of this. "The time for words have now passed. Let's-a go, Joe Dark."

Before the two forces can go at it, another force decides to make it's presence known. The seven heroes are surrounded by a circular pillar of starry energy, the brightness of which causes Joe Dark to raise an arm in order to avoid being blinded. "What is this?" For the first time during this battle, Joe Dark found himself perplexed by the events that were unfolding before him. Appearing above the heroes are the seven Star Spirits, each and every one of them looking at the Dark King with angered expressions on their face. "Your rampage has gone on long enough, Dark King!" Eldstar exclaims in a booming tone of voice. Geno lifts his head up, surprised by his superiors suddenly appearing before him. "Elder Star...Everyone...Why are you-" "Geno. I am sorry that we had to ignore you until now. We hid many secrets from not only you, but the rest of the world as well..." Geno lowers his head and crosses his arms in front of his chest while closing his eyes in thought. "Mario, everyone. As it stands now you have no chance of defeating Joe Dark. To prevent you from befalling the same fate as the Genesis Samurais, we will imbue all of you with our divine might. All together now my brethren!"

The seven Star Spirits form a circle in the air, and begin to spin around and around, sprinkling holy light down onto the seven heroes. All of them become covered by a golden veil, a powerful, radiant light shining brightly from their bodies as they become empowered by the energies of the very stars themselves. After ten seconds of this the Star Spirits stop, and the golden veil shatters around the heroes, revealing the new forms that they have received from this process. Alpha's body color has changed from brown to a crisp, golden color. His arms have become black in color, his trench coat is now a shiny silver color, and two angel wings have emerged from his backside. Geno's blue cloak and hat have become black, and the yellow parts on both articles of clothing have become red. Besides that, the only thing that has changed on his body is that his wood is now slightly darker in color. Gemini's eyes are now both the same color, two silver metallic angel wings on his back have replaced the demonic looking ones that he is used to having. A thick, curved sword has also been melded to his right arm. Mallow has gained a hat similar to that worn by a pope, and his staff has become more regal looking, the jewel on the top being an orb shaped emerald. Driad has gained a set of small samurai armor that's made entirely out of wood, with a small, rose colored katana held tightly in his right vine hand. The Mario Bros. clothes have changed. The blue overalls have become silver, the red and green on the rest of their clothes have changed to gold, and they have gained pure white capes that are attached to their backs.

The Star Spirits nod their heads, and teleport away from view, the star powered barrier vanishing soon after. The heroes take a moment to marvel at their new appearances. Gemini and Driad in particular are the most surprised by their looks. "An angel? I guess even a demon can earn their wings..." The thunder Koopa thinks to himself. Driad looks at his katana, the color of the blade reminding him of his fight against Acia. "Don't worry, I'll make our master proud..." He then sheathes his weapon into his holster. Joe Dark lowers his arm and upon noticing how different the heroes look, he can only find himself laughing maniacally. "HAHAHAHAHA! This is more like it! The light, the power I feel coming from you! This will truly be a satisfying battle for me, so I hope that you will all use your true powers...WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A CHANCE IN HELL TO DO SO!" Joe Dark summons his dagger, and the rest of the heroes get into their battle poses to prepare for the fight of not only their lives, but the rest of the planet's lives as well...

_Next Time: The Wrath of the Stars_


	46. Chapter 46

**Chapter 46: Joe Dark III: Despair Driven Demise**

The Star Spirits reappear back in their sanctuary in Star Haven, having just given most of their power to the seven heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom. All of them look exhausted, the result of their efforts leaving them floating only slightly above their pedestals. "Huff...Huff...We've done all that we can." Skolar speaks. "Indeed..." Eldstar responds to his celestial equal. "Remind me again...Eldstar, as to why we didn't use our powers to heal the boy?" Misstar asks. "We wouldn't be able to do anything to help him...Not without completely draining the Star Rod of it's powers..." "What if Mario and the others are unable to slay the Dark King? What then?" Skolar asks. "Then there is still one other who can fight him...She is lying in wait just in case..." "...And if she can't succeed?" Mamar says with a bit of hesitation in her voice. Eldstar is silent for a few seconds, with eyes closed as he tries hard not to imagine the consequences that would ensue if they were to fail. "...I wish to not think of such things, my dear..."

Back on the temple roof, the battle for planet's future has just begun. Driad is the first to make a move, rushing forward with his hands held tightly onto the handle of his blade. He makes a quick horizontal slash with his blade to separate Joe Dark's head from his shoulders, an attack which the Dark King manages to evade with ease by bending his head back. Then he launches a counterattack by dispelling his dagger and summoning dark energy in the same hand that the weapon was held in, firing off a short ranged beam of dark energy at the plant warrior. Driad's reflexes are too sharp for the Dark King though, and he is able to quickly hold his blade out in front of his body, using it to cut right down through the center as if it were as weak as a twig. Joe Dark increases the amount of energy that is flowing through the beam, and it seems to be enough to force Driad's sword back up a few inches.

Unwilling to give in, the Crayzee Dayzee presses down with all of his might, causing the blade to continue it's descent down through the beam until the cold steel of it is just about ready to touch the palm of the Dark King's hand. Joe Dark closes his hand to halt his attack and jump back, not because he was just about to be cut by the plant warrior, but because he saw Alpha floating in the air above him, his arm changed into it's familiar cannon form only this time around there are two glowing angel rings surrounding the center of the arm. Only a second after the Dark King gets out of the way does a powerful white beam with a thin red hue glowing around the sides of it fire out of the tip of the cannon. The beam quickly breaks through not only the floor of the roof, but also through the many floors that rest beneath it.

Seeing this beam in action, Driad lowers his head to look at his blade, gets an idea, and quickly looks up at Alpha, giving him a look that tells the Commander to keep firing the attack out. After he agrees, Driad holds his blade out horizontally in front of him, the sharp edge pointed diagonally towards the ground. The plant warrior walks forward and thrusts his blade into the center of the beam. The light energy reflects off the mirror-like surface of the weapon and heads towards Joe Dark once more. The Dark King, after he gets a brief expression of surprise on his face, back flips into the air and floats in place just out of the beam's reach. Upon noticing this, Alpha stops his attack and transforms his cannon back into it's normal form and turns his body so he is able to look directly at the evil boy.

Just when Joe Dark thinks he has a moment to strike back, he feels a sharp, cold object being pressed into the back of his neck. He turns his head slowly to the left, and sees Gemini floating behind him with his back turned towards him, his wings outstretched, and his sword arm held so perfectly over his shoulder that the tip of the blade is touching the skin of Joe Dark's neck. "Make your next move wisely Dark King, otherwise you won't be allowed even a second to breathe." Gemini says with an air of confidence floating around him. "You had a chance to finish me off..." Joe Dark quickly summons his dagger with a look of absolute insanity in his eyes. "I will punish you for not taking it!" The Dark King then quickly spins his body around, and Gemini does the same. Both of their weapons clash, creating a miniature shockwave from the impact.

After a couple seconds of trying to force one another to stagger, the two warriors draw their weapons back in preparation for a more powerful attack against each other. Gemini coats his blade with a veil of white electricity, while Joe Dark coats his dagger in a veil of darkness. The two slash the air diagonally, the tips of their blades clashing in the middle and creating a loud noise that sounds as though the very air around them is collapsing. It doesn't end with the two of them just performing one slash. No, they both begin rapidly slashing their weapons out in front of them, the sounds of clashing metal filling the air around them. After ten seconds the two retract their blades, with Joe Dark dispelling his weapon and calling forth an orb of darkness in the palm of his hand. Without missing a beat the Dark King fires the orb out at Gemini. The attack doesn't even come halfway close to reaching it's desired target, as a swift, thin beam of light pierces through the center of the orb, causing it to fall apart and disperse into nothingness.

Joe Dark turns his head to the left and notices Geno with his hand held out in front of his body and his arm cannon releasing smoke into the air. "YOU DAMN DOLL!" The Dark King screams out in anger, turning the rest of his body around and proceeding to charge towards him with a feeling of intense ferocity protruding from his aura. His attempt to strike the Star Herald is interrupted when a bolt of lightning comes down from the sky above and quickly smites the Dark King, causing his body to become slightly singed and forcing him to stop moving as he wildly moves his head around to find the one responsible for calling forth that attack. Before he can seek them out though his body is crushed between two giant hands of ice, with his head sticking out between the two pointer fingers. As he feels his body being slowly crushed, he looks to the right and notices the small cloud sage called Mallow with his staff held high above his head.

He lowers his staff, causing the two hands to release their grip on the Dark King and sending him falling towards the ground below. Once the boy lands on his feet, he kneels down and grits his teeth in pain, just in time for him to notice two people landing on the ground in front of him. Lifting his head up, he recognizes the two figures as the Mario Bros. The two star powered plumbers have their arms folded in front of their chest while looking down at him with disapproving looks in their eyes. Joe Dark rises up off the ground, his eyes staying completely focused on the two warriors as he does. Once he has fully stood up, Mario cracks his knuckles, raring to fight like he never has before. "You worms can't possib-"

A fist straight into the face of the Dark King by Mario is enough to not only silence him, but also forces him to step back in recoil. Mario steps forward and thrusts his other fist out at his gut, but Joe Dark regains his composure just in time to hold one hand out and catch the punch mid-air before it strikes him. Then he uses his other hand to try and slash at Mario's head with his dagger. The plumber ducks out of the way, and Luigi takes advantage of this by jumping on his bro's back and then back flipping into the air, spinning himself around so his feet slam down on top of the Dark King's head. The moment the man in green strikes down onto him, Mario pulls his fist back and lifts his body back up and jumps back a couple of inches. Joe Dark is slammed face first into the ground, his anger slowly welling up inside of him with each passing second. Luigi holds his hands out and spreads his legs so his feet are tightly clenching the Dark King's head between them. Mario grabs a hold of his brother's hands with his own and pulls back. With Luigi held out diagonally in front of him, Mario begins to spin him around. Not only is the man in green slowly lifted up off the ground as the speed of Mario's spinning increases, but because Joe Dark's head is stuck between his feet, his body rises up as well.

Once the two of them have been lifted to the proper height, Luigi releases his grip on the Dark King, sending him hurtling through the air with great speeds. After one more 360 degree spin Mario lets go of his brother. The man in green flips through the air at a much faster rate than the Dark King is moving at. Luigi curls into a ball shape and uses his Thunderhand powers to surround himself with an electric shield. It takes only a few seconds for Luigi to strike Joe Dark, the impact leaving a streak of lightning that traps Joe Dark in place. Using his newly born powers of flight, Luigi redirects his movement so he strikes him from a completely different direction. The green thunder repeats this action four more times, causing a grand total of six streaks to appear in the air around Joe Dark's body.

When all is said and done Luigi uncurls out of the ball form and directs the flow of the electricity that surrounds him so it all gathers into the palms of his hands as they are raised above his head. Driad dashes towards the suspended Dark King from one side, while Alpha charges at him from another. Both have their swords held out to the side of their bodies. As they both approach his body, the two of them slash across one of the lightning streaks, then another one in rapid succession. The streaks slowly change from yellow to red in color, and all but two of them shatter. Both warriors do one flip through the air, then Driad sheathes his blade while Alpha turns his arm back to normal as they land on the ground. At first it seems as though breaking the electricity did nothing, it only takes a few more seconds for Joe Dark's body to be cut in the same areas that the streak once stood, with blood slowly dripping out of them not long afterwards.

Seeing as this is the first time that his opponents had drawn blood from him during the course of the whole battle, he is understandably pissed off. "These worms...Scarred me...These worms...Unworthy to stand in my presence..." He thinks to himself with a murderous look in his eyes becoming more apparent with each passing second. Having charged up enough static energy in both hands, Luigi lowers them so the energy will be unloaded straight at the Dark King. "HERE WE GO!" Luigi exclaims with excitement as a burst of blue lightning shoots out of his hands. Before the attack smites the helpless Dark King, the two streaks that keep him in place unexpectedly break, as his aura of darkness becomes thicker and the feelings of fear and anguish protruding from it increases in intensity. In fact, the strength of the aura alone is now strong enough to completely deflect away Luigi's attack.

Upon seeing this, the group turns silent. The hairs on the back of the Mario Bros.' necks perk up, a nightmarish chill trickling down not only their spines, but the spines of the rest of the heroes who have them as well. Joe Dark floats in the air, his head lowered and his arms and legs resting motionlessly in the air. "Hehehe...He..he...haha..." He quietly laughs to himself. "I'm surprised...I thought fifty percent of my power would be enough...It would've been enough to take down any one of you if you were alone...But you clench tightly to that concept called teamwork..." As he says those last words he takes one of his fingers and dips it into the dripping blood coming from one of his wounds and lifts the hand up so it's directly below his line of sight. "And because of that you managed to wound me..." He tightly clenches his hand into the shape of a fist, raising his head and revealing the incredible fury resting deep in his eyes. "I've raised my power to seventy-five percent...You know what that means?" His voice remains calm and collected, something that will not stick around for much longer. "IT MEANS THAT I'M NOT GOING TO ALLOW YOUR USELESS HOPES AND DREAMS TO PLAGUE MY SIGHT ANY LONGER...I SHALL PERSONALLY SEND YOU ALL TO HELL!"

Joe Dark vanishes in an instant, the intense power placed into his teleportation creating a shockwave followed by a loud, sonic boom that ruptures the air. He reappears behind Driad, dagger at the ready. The plant warrior turns around and unsheathes his sword just in time to block a violent slash attack from the Dark King. But he does not let up there...No, he pulls his weapon behind his back and covers it with enough dark energy that it now takes the shape of a curved sword, then uses it to deliver an even more powerful slash that breaks Driad's sword in half as if it were as delicate as paper. Despite being surprised by his weapon breaking, the plant warrior quickly discards the two halves of his weapon, jumps back, and lashes out his vine arms at the Dark King, wrapping both of them tightly around his body in an attempt to restrain him while Geno and Alpha rush through the air ready to attack him.

The wooden doll quickly creates a black, sharp energy disc in his right hand, while the Commander turns both of his metallic arms into cannons and places them next to each in front of his body. Geno flings the disc, and Alpha fires two ion beams that fuse together into an even bigger beam at the Dark King. Joe Dark is unphased by their combined efforts, and quickly breaks free of the vines that trap him just in time to not only grab a hold of the Ztar Geno Whirl, but also to backhand the ion beam away from his sight. Feeling pain from the loss of part of his arms, Driad falls onto his knees and begins to shiver in fear while the lost parts slowly grow back into place. The Dark King, still holding onto the pitch black energy disc, holds his arm back behind his head and prepares to fling it at an unsuspecting Driad.

Geno, upon noticing this, quickly yells out to alert his comrade. "DRIAD! WATCH OUT!" These cries are able to alert him, and he raises his head as Joe Dark swings his arm to fling the disc at him. With his arms still healing, there is nothing he can do to stop the attack that is aimed directly at his head. The Star Herald Geno grits his wooden teeth, places his arms next to the side of his body and flies with great speeds right towards where his comrade is at. Alpha turns his cannon arms back to normal and thrusts one hand out, crying out the name of his companion in vain in order to stop him from charging in recklessly. Geno floats before Driad, arms at the ready to stop the disc in it's tracks.

Driad's eyes widen in shock, as the Star Herald turns his head to look straight at his comrade. He whispers something to him, his words so faint that it's hard for the Crayzee Dayzee to make out what he is saying. Geno turns his head back around as the disc slams into the palm of his hands. Unbearable thoughts of pain rush through his head as the attack slowly begins to cut through his body. But he tries his hardest to bear the burdens that have placed on his body, and while the disc is stuck in his arms, he moves them diagonally downwards, at the same time repositioning the disc so that when it cuts through his body, it won't strike down his comrade as well. Before the Geno Whirl finishes off it's master, a single tear trickles down from his left eye, revealing to him before his last moments in this body that he truly was capable to feeling human emotions and feelings in this stiff, wooden body of his.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity for Geno, the energy disc cuts through his chest, separating the upper part of his body from the lower part and splitting his arms in half horizontally. The life from his eyes vanishes in an instant, all that remains is the whites...No pupils, nothing left but a blank, white slate. It is only as the many pieces of Geno's body fall slowly towards the ground that Driad is able to realize what he was saying to him, a monochrome image of the Star Herald appearing in his mind as he puts the pieces together. _"This time around...I can save you..."_ And these words continue to echo in his ears as the body lands on the ground without so much as a sound.

The silence looms on the battlefield as a feeling of overwhelming sadness overcomes them due to witnessing Geno's heroic sacrifice. But one warrior, the one who overheard his final words, feels not only sadness, but also an intense anger welling up from deep within his heart. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Driad raises his head up high and screams to the heavens, anguished cries that unfortunately do not fall on deaf ears for the Star Spirits. Without hesitation, the plant warrior stands up and raises his right arm up, grasping onto part of it with his left hand as a glowing red rose quickly blooms on the tip of the vine. Joe Dark grins with anticipation as Driad fires a high powered, solar energy fueled beam at him. The beam viciously tears up part of the ground, but it completely misses it's target, as the Dark King teleports behind him and jabs his dagger right into his back. The attack is cancelled out as Joe Dark slowly raises Driad into the air while he stutters wide-eyed in pain. "Be thankful, I chose to avoid your vital organs...Why? You'll see soon enough, but for now this should be good enough to incapacitate you." With those words spoken he sends dark energy flowing through the sharp weapon, electrocuting the plant warrior until his body becomes limp. Then he pulls out the dagger and lets him fall gently onto the ground. Driad is just barely able to keep his eyes open, and in his mind he laments the irreversible truth in regards to his failure...

The Dark King turns around just in time to cut a crescent wave of light in half that Gemini had just fired at him. He then retaliates with his own crescent shaped, purple wave of darkness. The Lieutenant is easily able to cut this attack in half and cause the energy to disperse just like Joe Dark did to his attack. But this was all a distraction so the demonic boy could appear behind him and jab him in the back with his dagger. Luckily, Alpha had been anticipating and watching his movements with his cybernetic eye, and upon noticing his re-appearance he fires a thin ion beam that scorches the top of his hand and forces him to drop his weapon. The dagger falls onto the ground, making a small clinking noise before it disappears back into the darkness from whence it came. "Lieutenant, quickly!" Alpha yells out to Gemini.

Once he has received his order, Gemini regains his composure and does a 180 degree spin to slash Joe Dark across the chest. The Dark King floats back in order to get out of the way while gripping his right hand in pain. The tip of the blade still manages to nick the edge of his shirt though. Instead of letting the pain affect him any longer, Joe Dark summons forth an orb of darkness in his right hand and slams it into Gemini's gut before he has any time to react. The dark energy of the orb splits into six black chains and quickly wrap themselves around his body and wings, which prevents him from moving at all. Then the Dark King appears behind the thunder Koopa and slams his left elbow into his back, sending him catapulting into the ground below. Gemini's body skids along the floor until friction takes hold and slows him to a stop.

Ready to avenge their fallen comrades, Alpha charges at Joe Dark from the back while Luigi charges from the front, his right fist surging with a million volts of electricity. At the same time, Mallow uses his staff to call forth the mother of all Snowmen from the sky. "Reckless fools..." The Dark King whispers to himself, vanishing from view just one second before the two flying heroes can hit him. Alpha's sword slash strikes the empty air, a look of surprise appearing on his face as he notices Luigi's fist fast approaching him. The man in green is unable to stop himself in time, and when his fist makes contact with the Commander all of the electricity is unloaded into him at once. The circuits in his machinery fried, Alpha's cybernetic eye shuts down and his singed body falls to the ground.

Luigi, horrified by what he had just done, fails to notice the giant snowman that's just about to smash down onto his head. Mallow panics and tries to cancel the spell, but Joe Dark appears in front of him and with a eerie smile on his face he grabs the staff right out of the Cloud Prince's hands and snaps it in half. Without missing he beat, he then punches Mallow right in the face with just enough force to send him flying through the air until he slams into the ground a few yards away. The Cloud Prince still retains his consciousness, but just barely. The Snowman crashes down onto the green thunder, wrapping him in it's cold embrace until it melts away to reveal that he is now trapped in a block of ice. The ice falls onto the ground and shatters, causing the chilled Luigi to fall face first onto the ground from a combination of exhaustion and pain that he suffered from feeling the ice shatter around him.

"One left..." Joe Dark says with a chilling tone of voice while he turns his head in order to pay attention to the incoming hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Dark King raises his left arm to block a powerful golden flaming right hook from Mario, then raises his other arm to block a left hook aimed at the other side of his body. "Why do you continue? You are the last one left, and you are just as weak as the rest..." Joe Dark asks. With an unbreakable will and an endless feeling of determination welling up inside of him, Mario uses all of his strength to try and overpower the arrogant Dark King. "It's because I have something to fight for...You fight for no one but yourself, and that's why I know you will lose!" "How touching..." Joe Dark says without the slightest hint of interest in his voice.

He then grabs a hold of Mario's hands and flips his body around, pulling his arms so they are stretched out behind his back. Then he lets go and knocks the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom onto the ground. Mario tries to push himself up, but Joe Dark slams his foot onto his back, the force of his stomp causing Mario's spine to crack slightly in the middle. This turns out to be enough to incapacitate him though, as he begins to yell out in pain. Joe Dark kneels down and places his head down so his mouth is level with Mario's ear once he stops screaming. "Let me tell you something, insolent hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. You know why I let your friends live even though I easily could've killed them like I did to the Genesis Samurais? Because I know how everyone on this planet feels about you. To them, you are an icon, a glimmer of light that they can look up to from beyond the veil of darkness of their miserable, unfulfilling lives. And when I slay you, right before your very friend's eyes...That glimmer will be gone, and they will embrace the eternity of darkness and anguish that I will inflict upon them…" His whispers echo within Mario's eardrum, but he can do nothing to silence them.

Joe Dark stands up with his foot still placed on Mario's back, and lifts two fingers high into the air, the very skies cracking open and releasing dark bolts of lightning that smite the grounds surrounding the temple. A couple bolts hit the tips of the Dark King's fingers, helping to power up a final attack necessary to finish Mario off for good. Then a flash of light covers the lands after a lightning bolt erupts from the clouds, and the shadow of a person can be seen floating behind Joe Dark. The appearance of this figure causes him to freeze up and stop his attack, a few cold drops of sweat appearing on the back of his neck and trickling downward towards his shoulders. He slowly turns around to see just who could possibly cause him to react like this. Floating before him is a human with platinum-blond hair and aqua-blue eyes, though the right eye is covered up by a large bang of hair. The person wears a pale turquoise dress said to be a color that only exists when the sun peers out of the clouds, the dress having long sleeves with wide openings at the bottom, which are topped with powder-blue frills, and at the bottom of her dress is a unique powder-blue frill that loops around until turning up to a point at the middle; under this a layer of a light, ribbed under-dress is visible, and she wears a silver star shaped crown on her head and a brooch on her chest. The person holds a silver wand with a golden star on the top in her right hand, and silver dress shoes on her feet. Beneath the shadow cast by her hair, her eyes are filled with anger, and as she looks down on the Dark King a scowl of disgust appears on her face. As Joe Dark slowly begins to step back in fear, the mystical lady breaks her silence to speak to him. "Your reign of terror will end before it can even begin, Dark King. I, Rosalina, shall personally banish your impure soul from this plane of existence in the name of the cosmos."

_Next Time: Cries of the Fallen Reborn_


	47. Chapter 47

**Chapter 47: Joe Dark IV: The Lights Come Crashing Down**

Joe Dark, who for the most part up until this point has managed to not only keep his composure, but also managed to take down his mortal foe Whiter along with fourteen of the planet's strongest warriors, now finds himself stepping backwards in a cautious manner in the presence of the one called Rosalina. With each step he takes, however, the Princess of the Stars makes a move forward as well. But her advances are not only quicker, but they cover more distance than Joe Dark does as he retreats. As he steps off of Mario's body and stands on the ground, his body freezes up for a brief moment, as the spirit of the former Dark King decides to take over his body for a brief moment. This act of possession causes Joe Dark's eyes to glow a pitch white color and the aura surrounding his body to become a dark red color.

"Why have you appeared, slave to the will of the stars?" The deep, demonic voice of the Dark King blends with Joe Dark's voice as he speaks through him, the two sounds echoing together in the eardrums of Rosalina. She remains silent, but stops her advance to listen to the demon's questioning words. "Do you have nothing to say?" The Dark King asks once again. "What, are you following orders from the hi-GRrrrrrghHHHH!" Before he can finish, he feels a splitting headache coming on, a result of Joe Dark forcing his spirit back into his body against his will. The Dark King raises the boy's arms into the air and then presses both hands against the side of his head, as the screams of millions of fallen warriors echo from within his jaws. The two forces struggle for control, but eventually the red aura turns back to it's normal, black-ish hue and the eyes' ghastly glow vanishes.

Joe Dark raises his head up slightly and lowers his arms back down near his sides. He stares at the ground for a few seconds, and mutters something to himself. "Don't ever think about doing that again, you shriveled remnant of darkness past..." He then lifts his head up all the way and turns his attention towards Rosalina, who remains unfazed despite the brief moment of inner conflict that occurred before her. "Hmph...It was stupid of me to lose my composure...I suppose it was only because your sudden appearance was something that I had not expected to happen, that's all..." Joe Dark's aura becomes darker and thicker than before, as the ground shakes beneath his feet. This disruption not only shakes the bodies of the fallen heroes, but also causes the lightning in the clouds to come down at a much more frequent rate. Despite all this, Rosalina stands completely motionless, with not even a single strand of hair on her head being moved out of place.

"I will admit though, despite your feminine appearance I can sense a power within you that rivals that of those I have fought so far. So I'm not going to hold back...This right here that you see before your very eyes is my full power! And look what has happened now that I have awakened it...The very planet itself is starting to tremble, not because my aura presses against the tectonic plates resting below the ground, but because it is experiencing a fear that has not been witnesses by anyone for over two millennium!" After finishing his boast, he hopes that his words will have unhinged the Princess, but he is disheartened to discover that she still has yet to react. "So you choose to remain stoic? That won't last for long..." Joe Dark summons forth his dagger, stands up all the way, and points the weapon at Rosalina's face. "By the time I'm done, I'll have carved an eternity of despair and agony into your skull..."

The Dark King makes his move, dashing through the air towards his target and making a quick slash at the lower half of her dress. Rosalina quickly floats higher up into the air to avoid the attack, then in the span of three seconds she moves behind Joe Dark and waves her wand at him. A crescent shaped trail of sparkles appears along the path traced into the air by the tip of the star, and the three small crystal star projectiles that are fired out of the trail vanish once they make contact with Joe Dark's back. Despite their small size, the touch of those star bits causes a burning sensation of pain to rush through his body the likes of which he had never felt before. Steam rises out of his back where the three attacks hit, but it only sticks around for a few seconds before it slowly vanishes from view. It is then that it's revealed that there are now holes in his aura of darkness, which only stick around for a few more seconds before they are sealed up.

As his body produces sweat on his forehead, Joe Dark finds himself being slightly angered by the fact that he was harmed by such a simple attack, but shakes those feelings off and determines that her attack wasn't real but instead it was an illusionary technique she used to try to deceive him. He then turns around, and with a cool and arrogant expression on his face he points his dagger at Rosalina once more. The Star Princess has the star of her wand laid flat against the palm of her left hand, with her face displaying not a single visible emotion. "An interesting technique, but I will not give in to the pain you tried to stimulate with those illusions of yours." In response to these words, Rosalina steadily raises her left eyebrow and with a smooth degree of elegance she gets ready to wave her wand once more.

"Like I'll allow that..." Joe Dark has part of his aura separate from the rest of it off to the side of his body. He then delivers a hard slash to that floating bit that cuts it apart into many times pieces. The pieces rapid-fire millions of glowing purple needles at Rosalina with deadly accuracy. However, the Star Princess becomes surrounded by a thin, bubble shaped force field that is easily able to block all of the needles while still allowing her to continue performing her own attack. After using her wand to summon forth three more star bits, they phase through her shield and fly right into the defenseless Joe Dark's right arm. The pain from the attack causes the Dark King to drop his weapon and grip the injured arm with his other hand. After the steam vanishes, he moves his hand away to see that his limb now has three charcoal colored singe marks on it. As he lifts his head to stare at Rosalina with a frenzied look in his eyes, he lowers his left arm down to pick up his dagger.

The Star Princess' quick reaction time allows her to summon forth one star bit with a flick of the wrist. The little bit touches the cold steel of the dagger and an instant after it vanishes the weapon quickly disintegrates into nothingness. Joe Dark lays his hand flat against the ground, feeling his fingers around for his weapon without any knowledge that it is now gone. When he cannot find it, he lowers his head to see if he might have been feeling around in the wrong area, but ends up seeing nothing resting beneath him. He let's out a chilling, quiet chuckle while raising his body up off the ground. He lurches his head forward, slowly raising his limp right arm into the air and tries with all of his might to call his weapon back into his hand, but unbeknownst to him it is now gone forever. When this realization suddenly occurs to him, he lowers his arm down to the side of his body and suddenly finds himself at a loss for words.

Rosalina raises her wand, ready to cast another attack at the Dark King in hopes of finishing him off for good. But before she can begin to charge energy in her wand, Joe Dark's left arm begins to twitch uncontrollably. "I see now...It's not an illusion...Those attacks of yours, those insignificant little stars...They are filled with holy energy, that's the only reason why you are able to damage me as much as you have...Ha...Haha..." Ending his sentence with another chilling laugh, he then resumes his silence, which only makes Rosalina feel increasingly uneasy about the situation. Joe Dark then quickly raises his head up, revealing that the whites of his eyes have become yellow in color, with dark red veins popping up around the edge. His pupils have also become thin and oval shaped, making his eyes appear less like a human's and more like a demon's.

He then opens his mouth up wide, letting out a furious sounding roar as saliva drips down from the bottom of his fanged teeth and sticks to the top of the bottom row of teeth. He stretches his arms out wide beside his body, but besides a more ferocious looking appearance Rosalina notices that his power has not increased at all, and thus she is able to stay calm in the face of this unhinged being of darkness. Joe Dark takes no time in jumping through the air and raising both of his arms behind his back. Once he is range, he attempts to slam both of them down onto the Star Princess' body, but in light of his unstoppable rage he has forgotten about her bubble shield, which appears just in time to block Joe Dark's assault. However, the amount of power put into that attack pushes her back a few inches, which is enough to make her get a look of surprise on her face for a brief moment.

She quickly discards that emotion from her mind in order to take advantage of the Dark King's recklessness. She raises her wand and rapid-fires multiple star bits into Joe Dark's chest. The Dark King growls in pain as the first few smash into them, but the moment that the seventh one hits him he quickly lays his hands flat against the shield and flips his body so his legs are pointed into the air, then as he backflips into the air he spins his body around, drawing in darkness from the skies around him in a spiral pattern. As he falls behind Rosalina he positions his body so he is looking directly at the Star Princess, then proceeds to clap his hands to release a swift moving blade of darkness aimed at the blind spot of her shield.

The attack cuts through the shield, but before it can hit Rosalina herself it vanishes into oblivion. Upon realizing that her defense has been lowered, she turns around in order to strike back against the Dark King. As her shield begins to regenerate it's lost energy, Joe Dark lashes forward and shoves his hands through the crack, grasping tightly to it's sides and pushing as hard as he can in order to keep it pried open. His eyes become pitch black, the dark energy pouring out the sides of his eyes as if they were flames. As he opens his mouth the same type of dark energy builds up in the center in the form of an overflowing orb. Knowing full well that the Dark King plans to annihilate her at point blank, Rosalina takes her wand and jams the tip of the star right into Joe Dark's chest. The pain from the wound inflicted earlier still lingers, but even though it has now intensified Joe Dark refuses to back down.

In response to this, Rosalina gathers as much holy energy as she can possibly afford to give into the wand, and unleashes it all at once in one massive burst inside of Joe Dark's body. Light explodes out of Joe Dark's mouth and ears, and the darkness in his eyes are replaced with rays of bright, white light. His body is sent flying backwards with smoke rising out of his skin and eyes. He then lands flat on his back and skids along the ground for a few feet before he instantly stops. When the smoke dies down, Rosalina dispels her shield and wand and floats over to get a good view of the Dark King's battered body. His eyes are wide open, though they are still demonic in appearance there is blood dripping from the tears ducts that flow down his cheeks. His clothes have become tattered, his jaw looks disfigured, and there is a bit of blood flowing out of his ears.

"It's over..." Rosalina says in a relaxed tone. She then turns herself around and begins to float towards the fallen plumber Mario. He had raised his head during the second half of the battle, and in the face of this spectacle he can only stare at Rosalina, wide-eyed with his mouth agape in awe. The Star Princess responds to his surprise with a tender, loving smile on her face. After advancing a few feet closer towards Mario, she feels an incredibly chilling breeze trickling down her spine. She glances over her shoulder and sees Joe Dark rising up off the ground slowly but surely. He places his hands on the lower part of his jaw and with a few precise movements he manages to snap it back into place. He raises his head, and it seems as though his insanity has vanished, now replaced with that calm, arrogant grin of his. Despite this, his eyes remain the same as before. "So...This is the extent of my power in this state, is it?" He raises his right hand and clenches it into the shape of a fist. "If my eyes have already changed...Then perhaps it is time to shed the rest of my mortal coil as well..."

Joe Dark lowers his arms down to the side of his body and bends his body forward so his head is tucked downward with his back sticking high towards the sky. The skies are ripped asunder by the sounds of violent thunder, and the Dark King himself unleashes a painful sounding scream from deep within his lungs. The aura surrounding him forms two demonic, ghastly hands that quickly make their way towards his back. The hands dig the sharp tips of their fingers into the spinal area and pulls the skin apart, splitting both the flesh and nerve that rests beneath it. As the sounds of bones cracking can be heard from underneath the bellowing scream of the Dark King, a pair of dark purple eagle wings emerge from the back of his body and spread themselves out, a single wing's length being approximately five times that of Joe Dark's height. As a beast continues to appear from within, the remainder of it's emergence is covered by a gargantuan veil of darkness.

During this chain of events Rosalina has turned herself around to witness them unfold, but once the veil appears her once cheery demeanor vanishes, instead replaced with one of concern. Darkness is dragged down from the skies and sent into the veil, forming an unstoppable maelstrom the likes of which could darken the brightest of suns. The veil is cast away by a single flap of those demonic eagle wings, revealing the creature that rests behind it. A majestic beast with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle, the beast has fur and feathers with a dark purple tint to them, and it's beak and talons are a ruby red color. The beast's eyes are the same as those demonic ones that Joe Dark had prior to this unholy transformation. Resting on the ground before the beast is his former human shell. The beast lowers his head and opens his beak up wide, scooping the body up into it's mouth and crunching down on it with one strong bite. The sounds of bones cracking and the sight of juice from the flesh squirting out from the sides of his beak are enough to unhinge Rosalina. The Griffin chews the body until he can swallow it with ease. As the remains get sent down his throat, he lowers his head once more to look down at the Star Princess, with blood from the body dripping from the bottom part of his beak. The creature's stature alone overwhelms her, for it is easily three times as tall as she is.

The creature blinks once before beginning to violently flap it's wings and open it's beak to release a blood-curling screech from within. The shockwaves of it's screech greatly ruffles the hairs on Rosalina's head and causes her to produce a cold sweat on her forehead. The dark clouds that were once merely looming over the temple slowly begin to spread out across the rest of planet as well. Despite her initial moments of fear, once the beast finishes screeching Rosalina chooses to remain headstrong in the face of this new threat and raises her wand, pointing it right at the Griffin's head and rapid-firing multiple star bits at the beast just like she did before to it when it was human. This effort is in vain, as these star bits merely bounce off the front of the creature's head and fly off into the darkened sky.

After this Rosalina quickly floats backwards to get out of the way when the beast lunges it's head down, beak open at her in an attempt to eat her alive. Due to missing the beast's beak is impaled into the floor and gets stuck. Thinking that she has a free opportunity here, Rosalina holds her wand behind her back and prepares to behead the beast with an attack similar to the energy blade the Dark King had used on her earlier. But the beast works around it's situation by pushing his head forward and dragging the beak through the ground. As it raises it's head out of the floor he rams the top of it right into Rosalina. Though the barrier appears to protect her, both it and herself are knocked into the air due to the force put into the Griffin's charge. With the beast's head pointed directly at Rosalina's body, it opens it's beak to reveal a flurry of blackened flames overflowing within it's mouth. The Griffin wastes no time in unloading all of those flames at her in the form of a massive beam.

Rosalina regains her balance and quickly points her wand out in front of her body. Without missing a beat she unleashes her own beam of holy energy to counteract the dark flame beam. The two beams clash, with waves of darkness and light cascading from the very center of it. Rosalina tries with all of her might to press the beam back, but finds that her own strength is being overcome by this tenacious harbinger of darkness. As the flames come ever so closer, the pressure extruding from the beam blows back the bang of her hair, revealing the fear hidden deep within her eyes. The flames smash right into the shield and begin to break down the holy energy that makes it up. Cracks appear on the surface, starting from the front and slowly creeping along towards the back.

Some of the fire slips through these cracks, touches Rosalina's skin, and slowly begins to burn her body into ashes. Rosalina uses the holy energy in her wand to get rid of as many bits of flames as she can, but they are coming in too quickly for her to get rid of all of them in time. It also doesn't help that bigger flames are able to pass through the shield as the cracks become bigger in size. As the black flames die down, the shield completely shatters, leaving Rosalina permanently defenseless, something that the Griffin quickly takes advantage of by teleporting in front of her and grabbing her with it's left talons. It then slams the Star Princess right into the ground and squeezes the talons tightly around her body, trapping her in it's grasp with no hope of escape. Despite feeling intense pain in her nervous system as a few black flames still burn on her skin along with the fact that her bones and muscles are slowly being crushed by this hell spawn, she refuses to give the creature the satisfaction of victory by screaming out in pain.

"You have lost, this form of mine has proven to be too much for you to handle..." The beast speaks in a deep voice similar to that shared by the Dark King's spirit, but due to way it speaks to her, Rosalina is able to figure out that it's Joe Dark himself that is in control of this body. She still remains quiet, for her actions speak louder than words, and she decides to prove that point by raising her wand into the air and summoning a hollow, star powered pillar that reaches high into the sky and traps the two of them within it. Joe Dark looks around, and lets out a humored chuckle at the sight of this last attempt at resistance. "You plan to trap me here? There is no cage, made by either man or god, that can contain my hatred..." He speaks confidentially, but when he looks down at Rosalina he sees an unnatural grin on her face. The holy light surrounding the star of her wand changes to a black color similar to that seen in the deepest, darkest reaches of space. A hole opens up in the sky above them, revealing a portal to space that also creates a powerful vacuum that begins to drag the air out of the area. Looking up at the portal, then looking back down at the Star Princess again, Joe Dark lets out another chuckle. "I do not need air, and as a being who has rule over the cosmos I would imagine you don't either...And if your intention is to drag me out into space so I will be far away from the planet, then know that it is impossible for any vacuum, even one from the strongest of black holes, to grab a hold of me..." He then notices that the star on her wand has gained a flaming red aura. Not only that, but he begins to feel an object of intense heat slowly approaching him from above.

The Griffin gently raises his head and to his great surprise he sees a huge, flaming meteor falling down from the portal that's heading straight for him. He quickly lowers his head and hears Rosalina let out a quiet yet joyous chuckle, and due to being trapped in the pillar of light it is impossible for him to escape before the meteor can slam into him. He raises his head once more, and notices that the meteor is now halfway there, leaving him only a few seconds to save his own skin. He then takes another look at Rosalina and gets a maniacal grin on his feathered face. As the portal closes the rock from space impacts with it's target, exploding in a burst of rock and flame that's powerful enough to instantly break the pillar of light. The flames fail to spread out and burn the unconscious warriors lying around the temple roof, instead all of them are contained in their own pillar. In the aftermath of this event, a giant, shadowy figure slowly begins to creep out from deep within the flames. It is Joe Dark, who has Rosalina's body held high above his body. He quickly discards the Princess as the flames die down, but when he places his free claw down onto the ground, he finds it hard to keep himself stable, his body wobbling back and forth while he tries his hardest to keep balanced.

"Curses...I may have been able to use that woman as a shield to absorb the brunt of the damage...But that accursed meteor of hers still managed to wound me..." As he stabilizes himself, he moves his head around to look at the many warriors who had fallen victim to his rampage, his eyes focusing on Whiter in particular once he has overseen the rest. "It matters little now...I have taken care of everyone...Now all that is left is to ensure Whiter's demise." The Griffin raises it's head up high and proud, placing it's wings near the side of it's body as it's back is cut open by a sharp weapon. When the skin is split open, Joe Dark emerges from the body in his restored human form. There are no signs of damage, any traces of wounds inflicted by the warriors in his previous skirmishes have all but vanished. His eyes have returned back to normal, and as he exits the empty shell of the Griffin the beast turns into a cloud of dark mist that is quickly absorbed back into the Dark King's body, reforming around him as his pitch black aura.

Joe Dark sniffs the air, taking in the luxurious stench of blood and darkness that looms all around him. "Tantalizing...That's what this is..." He says in his normal tone of voice. Having enjoyed this pleasurable sensation, Joe Dark teleports over to Whiter's body while tightly gripping his dagger in his right hand. He notices that his sworn enemy is breathing slowly through his nostrils. "I hope you are enjoying those last breaths of yours Whiter..." He says quietly to himself. "Because soon..." He bends his right arm behind his head, preparing to strike. "You won't even have your lungs to breathe with..." The Dark King quickly lowers his dagger down to end Whiter's life for good, when suddenly his arch nemesis' eyelids open up and he summons his sword in his right hand, raising his blade up to block Joe Dark's attack with ease. "What?" He says in utter surprise. Alex uses his other arm to raise his body up off the ground, then proceeds to get up on his own two feet with his sword still managing to hold back the Dark King's attack. With a quick show of strength, Alex forces the dagger out of Joe Dark's hands and into the air. As the weapon spins around above them, the Overlord quickly turns his sword so the tip of the blade is now aimed at the Dark King's neck. "Sorry to disappoint, but you will not be killing me that easily..." As the dagger falls down and passes right through the center of Joe Dark's field of vision, Alex turns his head to reveal to him that his look of sheer determination has returned to his eyes. After this, the dagger gets stuck in a crack in the ground beneath their feet. "Now then Joe Dark, I think it's time that we end this." Alex says with confidence in both his tone of voice and actions.

_Next Time: The Second Chance_


	48. Chapter 48

**Chapter 48: Joe Dark V: Return of the Seven**

_A few minutes ago, as Mario and his friends are busy fighting Joe Dark..._

We take a quick look over to the fallen body of Zeno Blaze, the Genesis Samurai of Fire. Something is happening to his body, as a small portal of glowing blue light opens up on his back, and a ghostly, red orb with a texture similar to that of fire floats out of it. The portal closes and the orb quickly flies over to the body of Darnia Stratos. It then rises up and down rapidly, but stops once a silver colored orb floats out of the body. The red orb goes to another one of Genesis Samurai's bodies, with the silver orb following it. It does the same thing to each body until it has gathered the soul orb of every fallen warrior. All of them are then seen floating around in the air in a circle before they fly over to Alex's body. One by one the souls enter it, as a mystical rainbow colored veil appears to cover up the scars on his back.

In the deep recesses of Alex's sub-consciousness, the young boy can be seen sitting criss-cross on the floor of a realm similar to the one that existed within the orb where he got his powers. His eyes are closed, and you can tell that he is deep in thought. Upon hearing some footsteps approaching him, however, he opens his eyes to see just who has disturbed him in his moment of peace. From his point of view all he can see are the legs of seven human begins, so he raises his head up to get a better look at them. The first thing he notices is the one standing in the center has his right arm extended out in his general direction. Once he sees the amber ring, he quickly raises his head and is able to recognize the person in front as Zeno Blaze, and the other six that stand on both sides of him as the remainder of the Genesis Samurais.

"Need a lift master?" The flame samurai asks. Alex lowers his head slightly and chuckles. "Nah, I'm good. I was just sitting here thinking of a way to take down Joe Dark..." It takes a few seconds for Alex to realize the impossibility in this scenario and quickly raise his head back up to look at all seven of the gathered warriors. "How did all of you get in my mind?" He asks. "Well...After you were knocked out by the Dark King's relentless assault, we all stepped forward and fought valiantly in your name..." Zeno nervously rubs the back of his head and lets out his own chuckle. "Needless to say, we kind of...Sort of...Died." He starts off talking at a normal pace, then speeds up as he nears the end of his sentence. Unfortunately, Alex manages to understand what he said, and looks at them in shock.

"WHAT?" After expressing his surprise the boy gets up on his feet and promptly grabs Zeno by the collar of the shirt that rests underneath his armor. "Why would you do that? You didn't have to throw your life away for my sake!" The samurai is a bit shaken up by his master's blunt actions, which in turn causes him to turn his head and look down at the ground with guilt in his eyes over the fact that he has upset him. "I'm sorry...It's just that we swore to our previous master that we would defend him until the end of time..." "Promise or not, you should've exercised caution! Joe Dark was able to take me down, what made you guys think that you would stand a chance?" Zeno does not know why to say, and chooses to stay quiet to avoid upsetting his master any further. "Well?"

Darnia lets out a cough in order to grab Alex's attention. The boy turns his head to look at the wise old man, but at the same time he still feels angry. Darnia crosses his arms and gives the boy a nice, firm look in the eyes. "Listen here. I hate to be disrespectful to you, considering you ARE our new master, but you need to calm down, shut up, and hear me out before you do anything you'll regret later." After he finishes talking Darnia notices the burning fury in Alex's eyes slowly die out as he lets go of Zeno and turns his body around to pay full attention to him. "I'm sorry...I'll hear you out now." The boy says in an apologetic tone. "After the Dark King had knocked you out he was charging in, ready for the final blow. Had it not been for Zeno's quick thinking, you would've been dead."

"...I see." Is all that Alex can say, his mind ridden with guilt over his prior actions. He then turns around and looks Zeno right in the eyes. "Hey, this may be strange for me to say to you...But, sorry for getting angry...And, thanks for saving my life." Zeno is quick to respond by patting Alex on the shoulder with his left hand. "Don't worry about it. Trust me, it's not the first time I've saved my master's life...Though I guess this is the first time that I've died in the process...Hahahaha..." Alex joins in with Zeno's laugh, but then quickly shakes his head and frantically moves his arms around beside his body. "Wait a second, I shouldn't be getting off track here!" The boy then raises one arm up and points at all of the warriors with a speckle of fear seen deep within his pupil. "I need an explanation as to how you got in my mind. If you are dead, then wouldn't that mean…"

"Sigh...You know, I did warn that kid about this, I really did..." Zeno says. "Zeno, as your master, I politely ask that you stop being cryptic and just get to the point." The young Overlord says with a slight tone of annoyance in his voice. "Ok, ok. To put it in simple terms, if a person still has a purpose in this world, their spirit will live on until they can find some way to make sure that purpose gets fulfilled, or a multitude of things happen that make fulfilling that purpose an impossibility." After Zeno explains everything, Alex rubs his chin while he thinks things over. "I get it...So because I'm still alive, you are obligated to protect me because of your promise to the previous Overlord, even though your souls have been separated from your mortal flesh...What I don't get, is how placing your own souls into my body will protect me...And-" Before Alex can ask anymore questions, a startling revelation occurs in his head, which causes him to turn around and walk off while grasping both sides of his head and muttering the word "Crap" to himself repeatedly.

"Is something wrong?" Ezekiel ponders, clearly perplexed by his master's sudden change in mood. Alex quickly turns around and looks at all of the warriors with a panicked expression on his face, which is cause enough for all of them to lurch back in surprise. "I know this is weird to ask, but who was the last one standing from your group?" Zeno reacts to his master's desperate plea by raising his hand. "Ok….Zeno, what was the status of Mario and the others before you fell?" "They were still alive...Of course, they did look like they were about ready to fight Joe Dark themselves..." Alex bends down and slams his fists so hard into the ground that it cracks, which is an incredible feat considering there is no visible floor beneath his feet. "Damn it all! Why did this have to happen...WHY?" Alex gets on his knees and it looks like he is about to cry.

"I just wish I was stronger...I wanted to protect everyone after they worked so hard to help me...And now I can't do anything to prevent them from dying!" As the boy begins to break into tears, the spirit of the original Elemental Overlord comes floating down from above. Seeing their former master, even if he is nothing more than an orb of light, causes the seven warriors to place one arm out on their chest and kneel down in respect. "Alex...Get up off your knees, there is no reason to be depressed...Not yet, anyways." "How can I not be depressed? It's over, he has won..." "But you have not failed. You are still alive, after all. In fact, now that all of my loyal warriors are here inside of you they will be able to help us turn the tide of battle." "Sniff...Really?" Alex brushes the tears off of his right cheek and turns his head to look at the spirit. "Before I can explain, I will ask this again. Do you feel that you will be able to live to my name?"

"Yes." The young Overlord quickly responds without any hint of hesitation in his voice. "I figured that your answer would remain unchanged now that there is a chance of victory...But had I not said anything, would you still have said yes? I know you are scared, that things seem to be happening all too fast and therefore it is hard for you to comprehend it all...But at least you have someone to relate to when it comes to those fears..." Alex gets up on his feet and turns to look at the spirit of the Overlord, tilting his head while looking at him in confusion. "What?" Is all he can say. "Yes...It was a long time ago, when-Oh...I think we were about to get off-track here...Let us first deal with the Dark King's host, and once things have settled down I shall explain as much about my past and powers as I possibly can." "Yeah, good call there." Alex notes with a sigh of relief.

"I'll make this quick, seeing as you look eager to get back into the fight. You see, now that the Genesis Samurais have brought their souls in your body, your elemental powers have grown stronger. Not only that, but you will now be able to access a few transformations that will allow you to use a specific element to it's full potential. And by using their powers they will still be fulfilling their purpose in protecting you, which in turn will keep their souls alive within you until the day you draw your last breath." "Well, personally I have no problem with this idea if it means that I will be able to stop Joe Dark..." Alex turns around and looks at the seven kneeling warriors. "But are all of you guys going to be ok with this?" "Our undying loyalty gave us the patience necessary to wait two-thousand years for this day...And we will keep that loyalty with us until the stars die out and leave the universe cold and lifeless..." Zeno says. "Very well, then my decision is clear. I hope he is ready, cause it's time for round two!"

_Present Time..._

Alex stands before the malicious Dark King with his sword at his throat. Though it would be easy for him to end his life here and now, he instead chooses to withdraw his blade, an act of which befuddles Joe Dark as he lowers his own arms and calls his dagger back into his right hand. "Why did you not slit my throat Whiter? You want to end this, so why didn't you while you had a chance?" The young Overlord turns the rest of his body around so he is directly facing his opponent. He looks down at the ground, not even letting the front of Joe Dark's shoes enter his field of vision. "Why should I stoop to your level and discard my honor? I'm still going to take you down Joe Dark, but I when I do so I would like to have satisfaction over the fact that I defeated you while you were at the peak of your power."

"Honor?" Joe Dark says, his voice cracking slightly as he tries hard not to break into laughter. But his attempts to resist are in vain, as he places his left hand flat against his face and starts laughing hysterically. "Hehehehehe...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Dark King's laughter lasts for a full minute, and halfway through this session of his does Alex slightly raise his head to give him a piercing glare, pitying him for his inability to understand that of which he speaks of. When it has ended Joe Dark lowers his hand from his face to reveal the blank expression in his eyes. He then swings both of his arms out beside his body while leaning it forward slightly. "Look around you Whiter!" Joe Dark speaks ill of the many warriors who have fallen in his wake, but Alex refuses to pay him any mind. "They spoke of honor, fought to protect both you and the planet they care for so dearly, and one-by-one I showed them the futility of their relentless struggles! And now you rise again, talking as if you now have the power necessary to finish ME off?"

Alex calmly raises his sword out in front of his chest and lifts a couple of his fingers up off the handle to reveal seven different colored triggers underneath. "Last chance Joe Dark. Go to your full power, or else you won't get any second chances...Shoot the Furious Lightning! Trigger: Electric Sniper!" As he nears the end of his sentence the boy uses one of his fingers to pull back on the yellow trigger. The skies erupt with thunder, as a huge bolt of blue lightning comes down from the skies and smites him. The electricity surges through the cracks in the floor surrounding him, and when they vanish Alex can be seen wearing a metallic commando suit made out of hardened black and yellow lightning. His head is covered up by a helmet made out of a similar material as the suit. The only part of his face revealed is his mouth, as the eyes and nose are covered by a dark green visor, though there is still a clear enough view that you can see that Alex's eyes and hair have become yellow as well. His hands now have black latex gloves on them, and in the grasp of his right hand is a dark yellow sniper rifle similar to the one wielded by Pitori Sparks.

"That armor..." Joe Dark is able to notice the resemblance, as an image of the child of thunder he slew appears where Whiter stands for one brief moment. "Hehehehe..." He laughs in a chilling way. "Whiter, I don't know what your game is..." As he speaks Alex raises his rifle into the air. "But you have no chance of harming me with that ar-" A quick bolt of lightning fires out of the rifle's barrel and strikes it's target right through his right cheek. A massive scar is cut into the skin, and the intense heat coming from the electricity brings unbearable amounts of pain straight into the Dark King's nervous system. He places one hand on his cheek and wipes the blood dripping from it onto the palm. He then takes his hand out in front of his face and stares wide-eyed at the fact that Whiter has managed to make him bleed. Instead of being worried about this development, the Dark King finds himself greatly pleased, as now he will be able to truly enjoy ending his mortal foe's life.

"Well well Whiter...I guess I shouldn't underestimate you this time..." Joe Dark clenches both of his fists and gets an ecstatic look in his eyes. "Now then, I shall grant you your desire...DESPAIR AT THE HANDS OF MY FULL POWER!" The Dark King bends forward and releases a blood-curling scream from within. His aura forms two demonic hands that tear open his back and cause gigantic eagle wings to emerge from within. A sphere of darkness covers his body as he transforms, and once it breaks he stands before Whiter in his Griffin form. The first thing he does is unleash a mighty screech from his beak in hopes of frightening Whiter. Unfortunately for him, he stands still, unflinching in his resolve, and promptly cocks the barrel of his rifle to reload it and aims it at the beast of darkness. A red target reticule appears on his visor, as he spends a few seconds analyzing the beast in order to find it's weak point.

"Let's see here...Head has a durability rating of 92 percent, legs are as hard as diamonds, but the wings..." After making a calculation in his head, Alex lowers his left hand down to his hip as a compartment opens up with a thought. The armor dispenses a spherical object made entirely out of wool, which the boy tightly grasps in his hand. He then raises his arm behind his back and flings the object at Joe Dark's right wing. The static electricity that had been built up in the object beforehand allowing it to tightly cling to the lower part of his wing. This causes the Dark King to stop screeching as he hears a beeping noise coming from behind him. The sound gets louder and louder, as the beast turns it's head to the right and notices that "ball of wool" has a small, flashing red light coming from the center of it. His eyes open wide in horror as he realizes too little too late that the object attached to him is a grenade. A second after this realization, the projectile detonates on his wings, leaving behind a massive, electric explosion that engulfs his wing and paralyzes it to the point that it becomes stiff and is unable to be moved.

Alex places his weapon up near his chest and moves his finger towards the dark green trigger on the back as he watches Joe Dark tumble around in pain. "That was for Pitori...Uproot the Wild Grasses! Trigger: Jungle Whipper!" As soon as he pulls back on the trigger a poison ivy leaf rises up out of the ground and quickly spins itself around his body before sinking away without a trace. The young Overlord now wears a dark green army vest with various other colors plastered onto it in order to give it an appearance befitting a camouflage for the jungle. On his legs are tattered jeans, and at the same time he is also barefooted. His hair is an olive-green color, with his eyes now being purple. There are two dirt streak marks on both of his cheeks, and in his right hand he wields the same whip that Acia Rose once did, only with a black, crystal tulip near the handle instead of a rose.

Before Joe Dark can regain his balance, Alex solidifies his weapon and pierces it into the ground. Three vines erupt from the ground on both sides of the beast's body and tightly wrap themselves around the wings to keep him stationary. Unwilling to let Whiter get away with this, Joe Dark opens his beak up wide to reveal a plethora of black flames burning on the inside. Before they are unleashed upon him, Alex pulls his whip out of the ground and leaps into the air. The beast raises it's head in order to keep track of his target's movements, only for his attack to be foiled once Alex swings his whip and wraps it around the beast's beak to force it shut. Unable to stop himself in time, Joe Dark's flame beam fires off inside his sealed up mouth and ends up being pushed back down into his esophagus, where it then explodes within his gut and causes his insides to rupture into flames. As the beast screeches in pain, fire erupts from it's nostrils. The vine grasping it's wings disappear as Alex moves his fingers towards the aqua blue trigger.

"You aren't getting off that easily! That was for Acia, and now...Split the Raging Seas! Trigger: Water Sage!" When the trigger is pulled, the boy is surrounded by an orb of water. When it bursts, he is now wearing a light-blue vest with a white t-shirt underneath it. His jeans have turned into dark-blue latex pants, with a belt wrapped around the waist that holds both a trident and a short mage's staff on it. There is a japanese symbol for "Ocean" on the left side of the vest, and the boy's eyes have become a blue-green color with his hair now the same color as that of a clear afternoon sky. Alex pulls the staff out of his belt and quietly chants a spell while holding it out in front of his body. A torrent of water emerges from the air in front of the tip and forces itself into Joe Dark's mouth. The water enters the digestive track and puts out any of the fire that burns within him. After all of it is gone, smoke rises up out of the beast's nostrils and mouth, as he beast looks up at his rival with confusion in it's eyes as he lifts his staff up into the air.

"Rain down!" Alex swipes the air with his staff, which calls forth a few spheres of water down from the skies to bombard the Dark King in the back. When they are done Alex puts his staff away, pulls out his trident, and tosses it down into the ground below his feet. When the weapon makes contact water is sent rushing through the cracks of the ground and erupts below the beast's body as geysers. A couple of the gushing water towers slam into it's wings and splash water all over it's body. Puddles are formed at the feet of the beast, and at this point Joe Dark's eyes grow wide with fury. "WHITER!" He screams out as he rears his legs back and prepares to lunge at his airborne foe. Alex calls his weapon back into his hand to stop the geysers, then quickly flies to the left in order to avoid the attack. Once out of the way, Alex swings his trident horizontally out in front of his body, sending a crescent wave of water that smashes hard into the beast's neck and injures the nerves resting beneath skin.

"That was for Tina...Shatter the Reclusive Glacier! Trigger: Frozen Lancer!" Alex pulls the light-blue trigger on his trident and is instantly covered by a smooth, diamond shaped shell of ice. Once it shatters the boy is now wearing a medieval knight's armor made completely out of diamond. Unlike a true knight, he does not have a helmet on his head, revealing his icy-blue hair and cold, piercing white eyes. Grasped in his right hand is the same type of lance that Cecilia Frost once wielded, which he quickly tosses out at the beast as he grinds his talons along the ground in order to stop his charge. The lance hits the back of his dripping hind left foot and in an instant the liquid is solidified, which in turn trips the beast and forces it flat on it's gut. Joe Dark turns his head to look at the ice that keeps him from moving, and as he struggles to break free he sees that the ice is slowly advancing across his body.

The more he struggles, the faster the ice advances, and the faster that it advances, the more desperate the struggle becomes. Eventually all but the beast's head is covered in ice. It stops advancing at this point because Joe Dark is unable to struggle anymore. The lance vanishes in a glow of magic due to being recalled back into it's master's grasp. "Arise!" Alex raises his lance into the air, and four thin icy stalagmites come out of the floor and pierce through the skin of the beast's claws. "SHIVA'S RAPTURE!" The boy slashes the air in front of him with the tip of his lance, which sends a flurry of icy needles flying down at the Dark King which bombard his back, piercing through the icy layer and sticking themselves into his skin. The screech the beast releases sounds agonizing enough that it could make one feel sorry for it, were it not coming from the merciless ruler of darkness himself. "That was for Cecilia...Fracture the Silent Earth! Trigger: Gaia Bruiser!"

Alex pulls the brown trigger on his lance and is completely wrapped up in a layer of mud. The mud quickly dries and crumbles off, revealing the boy's newest form. He is now back to wearing that tattered jeans from his Jungle Whipper form, only this time around one can see dirt on his knees. His shirt is off of his body and wrapped around his waist, with streaks of dirt placed all around his skin. His hair is ruffled, but besides that there is no other change to his facial region. In his hand is the weapon that Ezekiel Gaia wielded, only without the pick-axe part attached to it. "I won't need this right now." Alex nonchalantly tosses the weapon into the sky and slams his fist into his open palm to crack his knuckles. He then pulls his right fist behind his back and as he strains the muscle in that arm to get the proper force built up in it, the ground trembles in the presence of his might.

"Magnitude Eight Punch!" Alex flies downward at great speeds and slams his fist right into the back of the icy shell that keeps Joe Dark in place. The force put into the punch cracks the surface, and though he is unable to break it open, a powerful vibration is sent flowing through Joe Dark's body, rattling the damaged organs underneath the skin which in turn causes him to be forced to endure even more pain. "Ok then..." Alex pulls his fist out of the ice and back flips high into the air, grabbing the handle of the hammer with both hands and raising it high above his head. "PERFECT DECADE SLAM!" He yells out in a rather energetic tone as he swings the hammer down and begins to rapidly descend towards the spot where he delivered his earlier punch. "THIS IS FOR EZEKIEL!"

The hammer slams down onto the crater he made earlier, the powerful force of a magnitude ten Earthquake being infused into the weapon causes the icy shell to shatter instantaneously. The pick-axe part of the weapon that appears at the young Overlord's command pierces the beast's spinal cord and the shockwave from the tremor breaks the bones of the spine in half. "RAAAAAAHHH!" Joe Dark yells out as his nervous system is assaulted from all fronts. Despite how painful it is for him to do so, the Dark King forces himself onto his claws and flaps his mighty wings to lift himself up off the ground with Whiter still on his back. The wind being released from his wings causes the bodies of the fallen warriors to start moving towards the edge. Alex pulls his hammer out of the back of the beast and places his fingers near the grey colored trigger. "Quell the Eternal Storm! Trigger: Wind Reaper!"

Once the trigger is pulled, a wolf's howl can be heard echoing from the skies above. Alex is surrounded by a heavy veil of fog, and once it dispels he is now wearing a white poncho with trails of dark-blue cloths hanging down from his shoulders. The poncho reaches down to his ankles, and both his hair and eyes have become light-grey in color. In his right hand is a black scythe that has many bumps on its rod, each one filled with varying amounts of air. This is the same weapon that Darnia Stratos once held in his hands. Alex quietly floats off of Joe Dark's back as the beast makes a one-hundred and eighty degree turnaround to confront his foe in the air. Once he spins around he opens his mouth and fires a highly destructive crimson energy orb at Whiter. The boy calmly swings his scythe vertically, placing the weapon behind his back as the orb gets diced up into multiple pieces and breaks down. What looked like one slice to the mortal eye was in actuality a hundred precise cuts...

Before the beast can fire another orb at him, Alex calls forth a veil of fog to cover himself. When the energy blast is fired, all that it manages to hit is empty air, and the attack continues to fly through until it enters the dark clouds and explodes in a burst of fiery red light. Joe Dark continues to fly around to try and find his arch nemesis, moving his head back and forth to scan the skies as thoroughly as possible. Alex reappears before the beast and delivers a swift cut to the chest with his weapon before he has time to react. The slash drains some of the oxygen from the Dark King's lungs, and for good measure Alex makes another cut before retreating to avoid the beast's claw swipe.

As Joe Dark starts to breathe heavily due to the massive quantity of air that he had just lost, the young Overlord raises his scythe above his head with both hands and begins to quickly spin it around, causing a funnel of wind to start forming on the ground. The funnel grows until it becomes a mighty tornado that engulfs the beast with a flurry of windy blades resting within it. When the winds die down there are now hundreds of tiny scars scattered around the Griffin's skin. "That was for Darnia..." Alex says in a calm tone while moving his fingers towards the bright red trigger on the handle of his weapon. "Rend the Searing Flame! Trigger: Flame Samurai!" Upon pulling the trigger, Athe young Overlord's body bursts into flames. The boy swings a silver katana from beyond the burning blaze, blowing the fires away and leaving him floating in the air in his last form. Now he wears the same samurai garb that Zeno Blaze had on, with his hair now a bright red-orange color and his eyes as red as the Griffin's talons.

Joe Dark stares in awe at the aura of flames that surrounds his mortal enemy's body, but at the same time he is angered by the fact that Whiter has now suddenly become this powerful. "How did he do this...It's impossible! And these forms...They are similar to..." As the Dark King thinks to himself, he notices a phantasmal projection floating off to the left side of Whiter's body. Though at first it is hard to determine who it is, by squinting his eyes to get a better look, he recognizes the spirit as Zeno Blaze. The young samurai's ghost gives Joe Dark an arrogant smirk, then he raises his right hand and calmly flips him off. That action, along with the agony he has had to endure due to Whiter's onslaught and the intensifying hatred for said boy has caused his insanity to reach it's peak. There are no words to describe what happens next...All that can truly be said is that the Dark King's mind snaps.

"WHITER!" Joe Dark screams in a bout of mindless fury. The scream is so loud that even those protected by the sanctuary of heaven can hear his angered cries. His scream is joined by the echoing howls of a million ghosts that surround his body in the form of his aura. His eyes curl back into his head, and then they begin to glow a bright white color. "YOU DON'T DESERVE TO WIELD ANY OF THOSE POWERS, YOU DID NOTHING WORTHY OF EARNING THEM. YOU ARE NOTHING, A SPECK IN THE UNIVERSE JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE DAMNED BEINGS THAT LIVE ON THIS PLANET! MY HATRED FOR YOU WILL NEVER DIE, NOT UNTIL THE DAY THAT YOU DO!" The Dark King charges through the air, moving so quickly that he literally pushes the sky forward. Alex raises his katana so the beast rams it's forehead into it. The Griffin then opens it's beak and drains energy from his aura to help charge his most powerful attack yet.

"...Is that what you believe? Has the darkness corrupted your mind to the point that you have no rationality left in your being? Let me tell you something Joe Dark, if there is still anything human within you to hear me...Whether you like it or not, I AM the Elemental Overlord, I AM the one who will master the elements in order to cleanse the darkness from all worlds...You, on the other hand..." Alex quickly draws his weapon behind his back and after only one second he reappears on the ground behind the Dark King with his blade held to the side of his body. "Can just die..." The boy sheathes his blade, and upon doing so the Griffin's entire body bursts into flames and plummets down towards the ground. "By the way...That was for Zeno." Alex says in a satisfied tone. Once it impacts, a pillar of flames rises into the sky for a brief second, and when it dies down the young Overlord enjoys the sound of the flames crackling as the Dark King's fallen, motionless body slowly begins to burn to ash.

"Thanks guys...Your sacrifices were not in vain." Alex thanks the spirits that rest within him. "That's what you think..." A deep, demonic voice speaks out from behind the boy. With a piercing chill being sent down his spine, Alex turns around to notice the skin of the Griffin's body being split open by a long, thing blade. Joe Dark emerges from the fallen bird, having now reverted back to his human form, even though his wardrobe has now gone through a massive overhaul. He now wears a black suit of armor, with bloody fanged skulls on the shoulders and chains reaching from the back across the chest and arms. He wears blood dripped spiked greaves on his legs along with black armor pads on his knees. He grasps a black sword that has a blade that is as long as half of his body length, the handle having three veins wrapped around it that are constantly pumping blood to the central, organic disc between both itself and the blade. As the Dark King rises above the flames, he stares down at Whiter and grins from ear to ear. "My host has failed to properly deal with you...But now that I have taken control, you can be assured that I will show no restraint, Overlord..." Alex recognizes the voice as that of the Dark King himself, and this revelation causes his eyes to go wide with fear as he realizes that the tyrant of darkness has completely taken over Joe Dark's body. "Yes...On this day, THE ERA OF ETERNAL DARKNESS SHALL BEGIN AT LAST!"

_Next Time: Prelude to Endgame_


	49. Chapter 49

**Chapter 49: Joe Dark VI: A Planet in Shadows**

With the Dark King now truly reborn in the body of Joe Dark, Alex is quick to realize how dangerous the scenario has now become. The young Overlord places his hand on the handle of his katana and prepares to draw it in order to defend himself. He awaits an attack from the ruler of darkness, but instead he is surprised to find that the Dark King is for some reason sniffing the air around him. "The air is thin...I detect a lack of suffering and fear on this planet..." He places his left out in front of his chest and points two fingers up into the air. "Peccatorum. Religiosus. VIM. EUISMOD. Sparsere planetam omnipotens...TOLLIT INFERNUM!" A pulsating, dark red ring with ancient runes on the inside of it slowly expands out from the Dark King's waist. Once the ring has grown wide enough in circumference, the ground beneath Alex's feet begins to shake uncontrollably.

"What is he doing?" The boy has a hard time hearing his own thoughts as the sound of booming thunder echoes in the distance. He turns his head to the left and notices a crimson lightning bolt quickly smite the ground near a town that lies over the horizon. "Oh no..." He says in a horrified tone of voice as he sees the dark clouds above him rapidly spread out to cover the skies. All across the planet, towns and landscapes start to become ravaged by lightning bolts that not only crash through the roofs of houses, but also set fire to the forests around the world. In the oceans the seas rage, wave after violent wave threatening to tear apart any sea-going vehicle along with their crews. Not even the lands that lie above these menacing clouds are safe from the forces of nature, as tornadoes rise out of the clouds and begin to suck in both the upper area of Sky Land and Nimbus Land into it's insurmountable spiral.

The frightened screams of the many citizens on the planet flow through the Dark King's ears, and by using his own dark magic he is able to make Alex hear those very screams echoing within his head. The sounds of the Toads, Goombas, Piantas, Koopas, and various other creatures only manages to make the young boy grit his teeth in anger at first. Then in the midst of the many voices crying out for a savior, he hears the pained whimpers of Princess Peach, and the tearful cries of Toadsworth begging for someone to come heal her. Alex, almost at the verge of tears at this point, quickly draws his katana and points it at the Dark King. "Withdraw your maelstrom of fear right now! This battle is between you and me!" The malevolent king lowers his head, and in response to the boy's defiant words his eyes glow a bright red color. In an instant Alex is forced onto his knees, his body being bound to the ground by a cage of crimson electricity.

"There is no battle to be had, seeing as victory was mine the moment I fully took over this boy's body." The Dark King takes his left hand and phases it right through the chest part of his armor. "Despite having his title, you are too inexperienced to have any hope of being a legitimate threat as an Elemental Overlord." The armored demon pulls his closed hand out and holds his arm out in front of his body. "I cannot take any risks though...The Star Spirits shall notice my emergence soon enough and may end up hindering my plans..." The Dark King opens his fist to reveal a pea-sized black glass orb in his palm. He begins to energize it with crimson electricity flowing out of his fingertips. "I will leave you with these last words, since you will not live to put them to good use. With your title comes a responsibility to the good people in the universe. With every battle that you fight, you are involving everyone around you in it...Whether you like it or not. After all, if there exists an evil force strong enough to defeat and kill you, then there is nothing stopping it from fulfilling it's desires..."

After enough energy has been put into it, the orb expands until it is half the size of it's wielders head, a hellish red glow surrounding it's body. The Dark King then flips his hand around so his fingers are pointed towards the sky. "And my desire, is to see your legacy end before my very eyes...Now, I'll let you take a moment to welcome the sweet embrace of death onto your heart, as you use your last breath to reminisce about days past..." Alex at first welcomes the idea of a peaceful recollection before death, but then he remembers his promise to the Overlord's spirit before he received his powers...And comes up with a somewhat risky gambit for dealing with the Dark King. "You hear that Joe Dark? After all of your hard work, someone else is going to kill me. Perhaps this wouldn't have happened if you weren't so weak!"

"Kahahaha..." The Dark King laughs. "You use your last words to mock the former owner of this body? I guess it's true what they say...That the first thing to go in the face of death is one's mind." Alex moves his fingers towards the yellow trigger on his katana, and gets a grin on his face that is hidden by the shadows cast by down by the demonic king's heavily armored body. "Now...DIE!" Before he can fire his attack off, a sharp pain thrusts itself upon the Dark King's brain, and the orb of darkness in his hand instantly vanishes. "What...What?" The malicious figure takes his hands and places them on both sides of his head, bending his body forward as a vein bulges out of his forehead. "So, you think you can just freely take over my body without any resistance?" The body speaks with Joe Dark's voice.

"Are you insane? Why are you trying to regain control? You want this insignificant boy dead, and I want to end the Overlord's legacy! If you let me keep control...Then I will-" "Use my body to bring about the end of the all life in the universe? Yeah, tough break there, you shadow of the past..." "Do you not get it? I am the only one who knows how to use the powers of this form to their full extent! If you take control, you will be significantly weaker! ARE YOU PURPOSELY TRYING TO FAIL AT YOUR GOAL?" "That's a risk I am willing to take...It may be impossible for you to understand, but your time has passed. You failed to kill the Overlord during your time in this mortal world, and now the only reason you are even allowed a second chance is because you had to possess the body of a child. How the mighty have fallen..." As the war of the two minds rages on, Alex is freed from his bindings. He pulls the trigger and changes to his Lightning Sniper form. He then stands up and aims his rifle at the Dark King's head.

"Though I may be a soul separated from my fleshy cage, it does not mean that I have become weak!" "Then prove it! If you are really as strong as you claim to be, then you should have no problem repelling the consciousness of a insignificant boy such as myself! HAHAHAHA!" "You still don't get it...You are no different from me! You kill without remorse, you've shown that to me today!" "I say you are the one who doesn't get it...My only targets are Whiter and anyone who is foolish enough to defend him! Once he is gone, then I will no longer have a need for these powers!" "You're insane..." "It makes sense for me to be that way...After all, I am your supposed successor..." The Dark King jerks his head back up and begins to scream in rage as he starts to lose the internal battle for control. Alex is able to locked on to the center of his forehead, and without any hesitation he pulls the trigger of his gun, firing a swift electric bullet that pierces right through the malicious king's skull, bursting right out the back of the head and forcing the Dark King's beastly spirit out of Joe Dark's body. The beast continues screaming until it melts into dark fog and is absorbed back into the body. Joe Dark lowers his head in a limp fashion, as Alex lowers the gun and lets out a sigh of relief.

"Whew...That was close..." Alex is about ready to deactivate his form and return to normal when he once again hears the terrified screams of the planet's population. "How can everyone still be in danger...Unless..." The young Overlord comes to a horrifying conclusion and promptly raises his head to look at Joe Dark's floating body with a feared look in his eyes. As the boy's malevolent aura flares back into existence, the fingers on his right hand twitch ever so slightly, and a moment later Joe Dark raises his head back up and begins to laugh maniacally. Alex is in disbelief over the fact that his mortal foe is still alive, and upon noticing that there is bullet wound in his head he begins to ponder to himself as to how this can be.

"Hahaha..." Joe Dark slowly lowers the volume of his laughter until he reaches the point of utter silence. "I will have to give that meddlesome tyrant some credit...He certainly knows how to make a perfect backdrop for this final battle of ours...Whiter." The moment that the armored figure utters his last name is the moment that Alex realizes that Joe Dark has resumed direct control over his body. "Yes...It gives you a sense of urgency, doesn't it? If you want to save them, and end this disaster summoned forth from the Gates of Hell itself..." Joe Dark raises his arm and points his sword at Whiter. "Then make me burn Whiter...Make me burn for my crimes! You wished to see my full power...So I hope you will not be foolish enough...TO HOLD BACK ON ME!"

Joe Dark quickly slashes the air with his blade, sending a wave of darkness rushing at his mortal foe. On his guard, Alex raises his rifle and fires a bullet that splits the attack in half and sends the bottom half crashing through the ground below his feet while the upper half scratches the top of his helmet. Joe Dark appears behind Whiter and raises his blade so the remainder of the dark energy gets absorbed into it, which creates a creepy, wavy purple glow while he raises his blade above his head. The scanners in Alex's armor detect the intense energy coming from the Dark King's armor, and in response to this he quickly turns his body around and pulls the red trigger to change into his Samurai form. He then clashes his katana with the Dark King's blade, and the shockwave of flames that emerges from the clash becomes as black as the night due it having now been dipped in the energies protruding from Joe Dark's aura. As he presses against Whiter's weapon, the boy can feel his katana cracking under the pressure of his overwhelming strength.

"Impressive Whiter...But I'm not too surprised. The fact that your reflexes would be as swift as the element you controlled in that form is a predictable ability at best...And a bore to me at worst..." Joe Dark can be seen grinning from ear to ear, a quiet chuckle escaping between the gaps of his teeth as he tries his hardest to hold back his excitement. Alex can't talk back, for his mind is almost completely focused on keeping his defense up. "Oh don't be quiet Whiter, I want to engrave your futile cries for help that will never come into my brain for all eternity, after all..." The young Overlord makes a quick glance towards the ground, which Joe Dark is quick to pick up on. He also finds it quite weird that Whiter seems to be getting bigger. At least, that's what appears to be happening, until the Dark King feels a strange, liquid material touching the nerves of his feet along with a hot air current rising up beneath him.

Joe Dark pulls his blade back and looks at the lower part of his body, only to see that he is slowly sinking into a pit of magma. After spending a few moments with an expression of surprise on his face, he manages to take a look at the heat waves emanating from Whiter's feet and chuckles lightly to himself once he puts two and two together. "Very clever Whiter. Since you couldn't attack with your hands or your weapon, you redirected the heat from your body to your feet in order to melt the floor below my own...And now the heat will turn my armor into liquid metal which will seer through my flesh until I am a hardened, black, skeleton that you can mount in the center of that ignorant Toad Town in order to glorify your victory, correct?" Before his arms are devoured by the magma, he raises them into the air, where he then commands the dark flames created by the clash of their weapons to form into the shape of a ghoul's bony right hand and grab onto his blade.

The hand drags him out of the magma pit, and as the heated rock drips off of his body Alex takes a few cautious steps backward upon noticing that almost all of the flesh on the lower half of Joe Dark's body has been melted away, leaving behind only the black, metallic bones that make up the lower part of his skeleton. This horrifying imagery does not stick around for long, as the metallic coat crumbles into blackened dust that scatters about in the air around the Dark King while the muscles on his legs slowly regenerate from absolute nothingness, followed soon after by a layer of flesh quickly growing to cover them. Before the skin covers it, fleshy juices emerge from the lower part of the legs and drip down into the magma below. When the skin returns, the black dust floats down and cover the legs, and in an instant the melted armor has re-appeared on his body, perfectly reconnecting itself to the rest of the armor on the upper part of his body.

"Sorry Whiter..." Joe Dark speaks with a hint of arrogance in his voice as he forces his sword free from the grip of the black flaming hand. He spins the blade around in a circular pattern beside his body before pointing the tip of it down at his arch nemesis' head. "But you won't be rid of me that easily..." The Dark King notices that Whiter's left hand is shaking uncontrollably, and is curious as to why that may be. "Has fear finally overtaken your mind?" He asks. "Fear?" Alex cocks a grin as a sweat drop drips down the right side of his face and he tightly clenches his left hand into the shape of a fist. "Why would I scared? This situation is what we both wanted..." The young Overlord takes his katana and points it up in the air at Joe Dark.

"I want to kill you while you are at your strongest, and you don't want me to hold back. Both of those conditions have been met...And quite frankly, the fact that you have regenerative powers doesn't worry me...In fact, I'm rather ecstatic about this battle. At least I'll learn how to take down these types of foes now instead of later..." Joe Dark takes a few moments to give Whiter a look of sheer disbelief, thinking his mortal foe had now lost his mind. The Dark King dispels his sword and begins to slowly clap his hands, all the while keeping that same, arrogant grin on his face. "I'm amazed that you can continue to look on the positive side of things, Whiter, but you are wrong in regards to one thing...I am currently using only a fraction of my full power."

Joe Dark appears before Alex with blade at the ready. Despite being surprised by the revelation of the malicious king's power, the young Overlord sets his katana on fire and quickly slashes at his foe's gut. The Joe Dark that stands before him turns out to be nothing more than a phantasm spawned from hell to mimic his appearance, and as the illusionary fiend vanishes in a veil of dark, hazy fog the real Dark King appears behind Whiter with his blade held near the side of his body and delivers a swift yet powerful diagonally cut to the back of his foe's armor, cutting through the metal as if it were paper and scarring the skin that rests beneath it. Alex lets out a teeth-gritted grunt while restraining himself from screaming in pain, then turns around to attack Joe Dark.

The Dark King's speed far outclasses his own in this form though, as demonstrated when in the span of the time it took for Alex to move himself, Joe Dark had already pierced his blade into the ground in order to cause fast-moving pillars of darkness to erupt from the ground and knock Whiter right off of his feet. While he spins around in the air, Alex pulls the grey trigger and changes into his Wind Reaper form just in time to turn his entire body into fog in order to avoid another cut from the Dark King's blade. Unimpressed by Whiter's trickery, Joe Dark cautiously leans his head around from left to right as he waits for him to stop acting like a coward and make another strike at him. After a few seconds of utter silence, Joe Dark feels a slight prick feeling on the skin of his neck, and following an irritated sigh Joe Dark raises his left hand and fires a black energy sphere with dark red flames burning around it out into the sky. That attack only travels a short distance before it explodes and sends ash clouds flying all around in the air.

The Dark King briefly sees Whiter's outline amidst one of the many ash clouds, only for the figure to disappear the moment that it sees that he has been spotted. Joe Dark feels another prick on his neck afterwards and responds to it with the same attack as before, only this time around he uses his right hand to fire the attack. This same pattern is repeated four more times, until the malicious king catches on to Whiter's tricks and tosses his blade out into the fog cloud, which impales itself right through his arch nemesis' right shoulder, causing his body to become visible once more. Joe Dark commands his blade to return to his hand and teleports over to Whiter in a brief flash of darkness. "You know Whiter, having regenerative powers means that any oxygen atoms you try to steal from my respiratory system will simply be replaced with new ones in the span of a second...A clever trick nonetheless."

"Who said I was planning on stopping you from breathing?" As Alex grasps his damaged shoulder with the opposite hand, his limp hand still managing to grasp onto the scythe. By telepathically communicating with the weapon, all of the oxygen gathered within it is unleashed at the same time in the form of a massive wind burst. Surprisingly, this works as an efficient enough of a distraction thanks to some of the millions of tiny wind blades within the blast cutting the Dark King's eyes, blinding him long enough for Alex to back flip away from him and pull the green trigger to change into his Jungle Whipper form. While in this state, Alex calls forth a long leaf covered in aloe vera so he can use it to cover his shoulder wound and ease the pain. Once the leaf is wrapped underneath his armpit and tied together via a small vine, Alex lets out a heavy sigh of relief while he changes into his Frozen Lancer form by pulling the appropriate trigger.

The young Overlord takes his lance and tosses it straight at Joe Dark once the blast of wind has died down. The weapon pierces through the chest region of the Dark King's armor, digging through the skin and reaching deep into the hollow void where his heart once existed. As his eyes regenerate, the subzero temperatures of the lance begin to cause permafrost to rapidly spread across the armor. By the time Joe Dark is able to react to this development, Alex has already called his weapon back into his hand and pulled the brown trigger to change into his Gaia Bruiser form. Alex charges at the now frozen Dark King, but right before he is about to slam him with a Magnitude 10 punch, the malicious king breaks the ice with the raw power of his aura alone. With a furious look in his eyes having now formed due to his patience running thin, Joe Dark grabs a hold of Whiter's fist and twists his arm with so much brute force put into it that when the bones holding everything together snap, it is both swift and excruciatingly painful for the victim in question.

Before the young Overlord can start screaming, the Dark King uses his otherworldly magic to seal his mouth shut with a magic barrier. He then dispels his sword and turns the hand that held it into a demonic, blood drenched claw before jamming it into Whiter's gut. When this happens, hundreds of long, sharp metal needles drenched in the blood and guts of many vicious beasts and demons of yore pierce themselves into multiple parts of Alex's body, with not a single one of them managing to touch his head. The world around them becomes distorted and fuzzy, a sign that Joe Dark is taking them to a new realm. Despite thinking that these needles are part of an illusion created by the Dark King, the unbearable amounts of pain being inflicted onto him by the second makes Alex realize that his line of thinking does not hold true. As he looks around him, he finds himself in a realm of pitch darkness, the only thing he can happen to notice in particular is the reddish outline of what looks to be a stalagmite. With his claw still stuck in his mortal foe's body, Joe Dark takes his other hand and wraps his fingers delicately around Whiter's chin and lifts his head up so they are now at eye level with each other.

"Whiter, let me tell you something right now...First off, I would like to give you some credit where credit is due, since from what I've seen in our battle here today you at least know some interesting uses for the many elemental powers in your possession. But that's just the thing...This just isn't your own strength." Joe Dark lowers his hand away from Whiter's face and skims the tips of his finger nails down the center of his chest. "This form, you did not come up with this yourself..." The Dark King grabs a hold of the hammer held tightly in his rival's right hand and yanks it out in a second, then presses the top of the weapon against the lower part of the young Overlord's chin to lift his face up high once more. "This weapon...It belongs to someone else." The arrogant king places the weapon back into Whiter's hand after making his point known, then goes back to holding his rival's face up high with his own hand. "You see Whiter, it doesn't matter how strong you become...It doesn't matter how many forms you take...In the end, you are nothing more than a puppet unable to use your own strength to accomplish your goals without submitting to the will of others..." Joe Dark removes his hand from the young Overlord's face and digs his fingers into the right side of his own. The young Overlord feels the realm around him becoming increasingly hotter, as he body begins to sweat by the bucket load. While he feels the moisture in his body vanish and his skin dry up, Alex weakly lifts his head up and notices the realm around him has become bright with the light of a hundred rising flames on the floor. "And all gods, even those omnipotent and omniscient..." The Dark King rips the flesh right off of his face, revealing beneath it a face of indescribable terror, the face of a creature beyond the comprehension of even the strongest of mortals, and the face of the unstoppable being who rules this fiery realm. "Shall eventually lose their wings...And fall into the sinful realm...Of Hell." Before Whiter can even blink, Joe Dark opens his face up wide to reveal hundreds of fanged, blood dripped teeth within him and thrusts his head out to devour his own mortal being with one, vicious bite.

Back in the plane of human existence, it turns out that all that Alex witnessed was indeed a nightmarish illusion created by the Dark King, but the effects of which were so realistic that the young Overlord's mind has been broken into microscopic pieces, leaving him with nothing more than a vacant, terrified look in his eyes. Now lacking the ability to properly concentrate, Whiter reverts back to his original appearance, and his flaming sword vanishes in a puff of fire. His lifeless body falls backwards and begins to plummet rapidly towards the ground. Joe Dark lowers his head to watch his rival land flat onto the roof of the temple, all the while his face grinning with joy. "Now...There is only one thing left to do..." Joe Dark floats down and back while holding his left arm out front of his body with the upper part raised into the air. His hand draws in fear from the world around him and converts it all into dark energy that surrounds his body in the form of a barely visible bubble. As the remainder of the energy is drawn into the palm of his hand and begins to be pressed together into the shape of an orb, Joe Dark looks down at the temple to see the many bodies that have fallen before his might. "I will achieve absolute victory here today...I will bring about the end of my hated enemy Whiter, and I will fulfill my purpose as the Dark King by destroying every last trace of the Overlord's legacy...If any of you down there still have even a hint of consciousness left within you, live your last moments in regret...For all of you, have failed..."

_Next Time: From the Ashes_


	50. Chapter 50

**Chapter 50: Joe Dark VII: One Last Chance**

_"...It's over. Looks like we will not need to go through with the witch's plan after all." The figure that speaks from behind the shadows gets ready to turn around and leave, when his other overlooking friend shuts off the escape route with a snap of the fingers. "I wouldn't be so quick to depart my friend. A story is not over until every page has been written, and the author of this tale still has ink left in his pen." "I'd watch your tongue, jester, because from the way you speak it sounds like you want the Overlord to succeed." "Until those words directly slip through my lips, my intentions are still the same as they always have been. I am merely pointing out that the Overlord has not been destroyed...After all, there is still one force capable of changing this everflowing tide of battle." The second figure uses his magic to change the portal's view from the Origin Temple to that of Star Haven's Sanctuary, where the Star Spirits are currently residing. "Now, come back over, and let us watch them decide the end of this story..."_

We change our point of view to that of the Sanctuary. The Star Spirits all have their eyes closed, their minds focused completely on the desperate situation happening on the surface of the planet. It has been hard for them to continue looking, as every time they felt relieved by the sight of the Dark King being struck down, they ended up frightened a moment later as the malicious king's power continued to increase exponentially. Upon Alex being struck down once more, all seven of the wise Spirits opened their eyes and looked at one another with a disheartened look in their oval shaped pupils. "..." Eldstar is silent, not only because the planet he was sworn to protect is now doomed, but also because he hid the truth about the Dark King and the Elemental Overlord from the planet for so long, it cost Geno his life.

"What are we going to do, Eldstar?" Mamar is the first to speak up. "...I do not know." The elder Star responds. "We must come up with a plan quickly!" Skolar says. "The one called Joe Dark underestimates the power he wields!" "Skolar is right." Kalmar says. "He thinks this next attack of his will only blow up the temple and everything surrounding it, but in reality it will erase the entire planet and kill everyone on it, including himself!" The Star Spirits begin to bicker among one another, all of them save for Eldstar discussing different ideas on how to stop this, but when the elder Star can no longer handle all of the noise around him, he opens his eyes up wide and screams out "ENOUGH!", which is more than enough to silence the rest of his companions and turn their attention towards the fury in his eyes.

Eldstar regains his composure and closes his eyes. The rest of the Stars give him a moment of silence in order to let him gather his thoughts and speak. "We shall evacuate the planet..." Is what he offers as his solution. The other Star Spirits are taken aback by his answer, even though deep down they knew that he would end up saying this. "How can we do that? Where will we go?" Are the questions the Spirits ask simultaneously. "We will use the Star Rod to put everyone on the planet into a state of eternal slumber, and then sacrifice both the Rod and Star Road to teleport everyone, including ourselves and Mario's group on top of the temple, to a planet that I know of that will be suitable enough to support the lives of us all..." "So...these are our last hours on this planet? ...I must ask Eldstar, what about the young Overlord?" Misstar asks. "There is nothing we can do for him..." Eldstar hesitates in his response

"What do you mean by that?" The voice comes from out of nowhere, but the Star Spirits are quick to recognize it. Turning themselves around to look at the entrance, they see a light orb of glimmering light standing in the center of the doorway. "Geno?" Eldstar says in utter shock. "How are you still alive?" The little star floats up to the center pedestal before he speaks again. "Only my body was destroyed, thank heavens for that..." "Whew..." Eldstar lets out a sigh of relief. "It is nice to know that you will be there with us when we go to that new world..." "I overheard your conversation, Elder Star...Why can't you use the Star Rod's powers to heal Alex?" "Because Geno...By inheriting the Elemental Overlord's powers, the boy called Whiter has now ascended to a level of power that surpasses even the Star Rod's own...We had considered that option the first time he was damaged, but as things are now, it is impossible...I'm sorry."

"Oh..." If Geno still had his body, this would be the part where he lowers his head and begins to accept the harsh truth that lies before him. But then he remembers something, an incident that happened in the past involving both the Star Spirits and the Star Rod. "Wait! Remember when Bowser stole the Star Rod that one time? And then both Peach and Twink managed to use the hopes and wishes of the people on the planet to power you guys up so Mario could negate the power of the buffed Star Rod? Maybe we could use that method again! Only this time around-" "The Star Rod ITSELF would get powered up instead!" A glimmer of hope flares up within Eldstar's eyes, only for it to die down in a matter of seconds. "..."

"What is it Eldstar?" Kalmar asks. "Geno, your idea is sound, but there is a major problem..." Eldstar raises his arms up high and an orb appears in the center of the room. The orb plays a video showing the aforementioned battle between Mario and Bowser on one side, with another video of people all-around the Mushroom Kingdom sharing their hopes and dreams to help Mario win playing on the other side. "Mario had earned respect from hundreds of people around the Mushroom Kingdom, which is part of the reason as to why they followed an unknown voice's plea to speak of their hopes and dreams. Alex is a different story. Though he carries the soul of a man once known as a god in his body, he himself is an unknown person. No one has any reason to trust him with their lives, and as such it will be impossible to gather any hopes and dreams from anywhere besides Toad Town..."

"Eldstar..." Geno floats over to the mustache'd star's face. "Please, just set up a telepathic communication link to the rest of the planet. I have an idea on how to make everything work out..." Eldstar is hesitant in responding. But he lets out a heavy sigh and realizes that it's completely unlike him to be giving up hope so easily. "Very well Geno, I trust you with your plan..."

Back in Toad Town, Peach can be seen limping out to the highest balcony in her castle. She can be seen holding her bleeding left arm tightly, with Toadsworth panicking beside her. "Princess, you shouldn't be moving! Please, get back in the castle where it's safe!" Peach reaches the end of the balcony and turns her head to give her elderly retainer a rather fake smile. "I wouldn't be much of a Princess if I neglected to be there for my people in their time of need..." Peach turns her face back around and gets a serious look in her eyes. "Besides, nowhere is safe anymore..." She whispers to herself. As she overlooks the town, she sees the devastation brought upon the populace by the rampaging lightning bolts. Houses are burning down, Toads can be seen dragging their friends and family members out of the rubble, and there is a group of young ones huddled together beneath a giant wooden board. Luckily, despite the hefty damages to the properties, no one has died.

"People of Toad Town!" Despite the pain in her damaged arm, Peach raises both of them high into the air to address the town folk with a comforting yet loud tone of voice. The townsfolk stop running amok and turn their attention towards the castle. Anyone who is out of range of the Princess' voice is called over to the town center to listen by the rest of the populace. "I know things look tough, I know you are all scared...It's not wrong to be scared, and if I must be honest I am just as frightened as the rest of you! But please, you must stay headstrong, for-" "You know what? I can't believe you are trying to tell us to calm down, when the world is ending right before our very eyes!" A random Toad with green spots on his head yells out to Peach. "In fact, since these are my last days on this Earth, I got a few choice words for you! You were a horrible Princess! Always getting kidnapped, always letting other people do stuff for you while you sat back in that throne room of yours! Meanwhile, the rest of us had to always deal with the brunt of whatever darn plans Bowser or some other evil force had up their sleeves! And also, I must-" A few other Toads jump onto that single Toad to silence him, but as he struggles to break free from his restrainers, his words incite words of treason against Peach from various members of the crowd as well.

Eventually the crowd erupts into a full-scale riot, their deafening cries of violence prevent Peach's voice from getting through to them. "Please..." Peach begs to herself for the Toads to stop, but nothing happens. "Please." She tries speaking out to the crowd, but at first she only does so quietly. Almost on the verge of tears, Peach lowers her head and slams both of her fists onto the bar of the balcony. "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" The sound of her tearful scream is not the only sound heard that stops the Toads from fighting. From the back of the crowd Professor E. Gadd can be seen blowing an air horn into a Megaphone to get the townsfolk's' attention. As everyone turns their attention towards the elderly professor, he tosses the air horn off to the side and the megaphone near his mouth. "Princess Peach...I know you are trying to do the right thing, but we cannot withhold the truth from these frightened people any longer!"

Peach raises her head up as the elderly professor speaks, and nods in agreement after he is done. Taking her nod as a sign of acceptance, E. Gadd nods back to her then aims his megaphone at the crowd of anticipating Toads. "I'm sorry to say, but that one Toad is right...This is, in fact, the end of our world." The group lets out a collective gasp, and then all of them begin to quietly murmur to one another. "You may be wondering how I know...And I can provide that answer to you. You see, just this morning Mario, Luigi, and a few other brave souls set out through my portal device to a place called the Origin Temple. They went there to bring about the revival of the Elemental Overlord, a being of near-infinite power who lived over two-thousand years ago. And as much as it pains me to say so...They succeeded. Shortly after they left, I found some text on the back of the tablet I had found that spoke of the Overlord's fall at the hands of despair, and how the skies would crash down to signal the end of all life on the planet..."

"Wait..." A little, yellow-capped Toad walks out from the center of the crowd and twiddles his fingers around in front of his chest, a sign of his nervousness towards speaking to the Professor. "You said...That Mr. Mario and Mr. Luigi went to this temple...So...What has happened to them?" E. Gadd lowers his megaphone and tilts his head off to side. "I don't know..." He says in response to the little one's question. _"Let me take over from here Professor." _A voice speaks in the Professor's mind. Upon recognizing it, the professor lifts his head up and tries to look around for the person addressing him. "Geno? Where are you?" He asks. _"I'm up in Star Haven, the Star Spirits are using their strength to allow me to talk to everyone on the planet. Now please listen careful, we don't have much time!"_

_"It's time that all of you on this planet knew the truth. Two-thousand years ago there was a war between two deities on a far off planet. The Elemental Overlord and the Dark King fought a battle that ended with the later losing their life, and the former being brought close to death. For whatever reason, the Overlord sealed the Dark King's power away in a cavern deep within the desert, then traveled around the world with his seven loyal guardians, the Genesis Samurais, to find seven places in order to seal parts of his powers away within seven stones. There was a guardian placed both within and outside each temple, each and every one of them eternally loyal to the man who created them...It was this same Overlord who created me, Heartnote? or as some of you better know me as, Geno."_

In a small town just due south of Toad Town, a young Toad with a purple-striped cap and a blue vest can be seen tightly holding on to a Mario doll for comfort, when he hears the truth about "Geno"'s origin. "Well I'll be darned..." He says to himself. _"After all preparations were made, the Overlord created one final temple to seal away his very soul along with the remainder of his powers into an orb on the top floor. His loyal guardians stayed behind in the temple to guard it and his legacy forever, and the lone maiden who followed him to very end exited the temple and took me to Star Haven, where I became the herald of the Star Spirits. Years passed by, and the guardians protected the seven temples from many threats...But there was one guardian who failed."_ Geno quickly goes over the tragic tale of the one called Driad, then continues on speaking of the issue at hand.

_"And then, just a week ago...Driad met someone. The great hero of this planet, Mario, and his companion, a young boy who has now inherited the Overlord's powers, Alex Whiter." _Geno then explains how Mario went on this journey, and a few things about how Alex is connected to all of that. _"So Driad joined them, and on the way they overcame many trials, being joined by many allies both new and old and overcoming the guardians of each and every temple with all of their might, eventually culminating in all of us entering the Origin Temple and defeating the guardians that rested inside. But there was one obstacle that we were never able to overcome, no matter how hard we tried. Please, I must ask everyone who is still listening to close their eyes in order to see this..." _At first the people of the world are reluctant to follow this unknown voice's wishes, but they determine that it would be better for them to know the truth in their final hour, and proceed to close their eyes.

Upon doing so, they see the image of Joe Dark continuing to charge up his world-destroying attack. _"His name was Joe Dark...A violent young boy who allied himself with the witch Cackletta in order to kill Alex." _In a faraway town in a faraway land, a massive, rotund green creature with an orange dress and a crown stands outside of a ruined castle with her retainer, a short, elderly figure with a robe around her body. "Cackletta? But didn't the Mario Bros.-" "Hush my Queen, let us keep hearing this 'Geno' person out." The retainer says. _"Alex was about ready to take the Overlord's powers for himself, but then Joe Dark had appeared, having now absorbed the Dark King's spirit into his own body and becoming more demonic as a result of that..."_

The image projected into everyone's heads is changed to an overhead view of the fallen Alex. _"Alex was able to get the Overlord's powers due to us distracting Joe Dark...But it was not enough. Overwhelming the boy with ease, Joe Dark was about ready to finish him off for good, when the ones who pledged their lives to their master...Those seven brave warriors...Sacrificed their lives for his own sake." _The images flash through a few quick overhead shots of the seven fallen Genesis Samurais. _"Having seen enough, the Star Spirits imbued a fraction of their powers onto Mario and his friends...But even that proved ineffectual in stopping him...And..." _Showing hints of reluctance in his voice, Geno almost chooses not to show the world the fates of their heroes, but after a few seconds his relents and proceeds to let the overhead images of Mario, Luigi, Mallow, Driad, Alpha, Gemini, and Rosalina's fallen bodies pass through the minds of the planet's populace.

Upon seeing the sight of their child in an unconscious state on the ground, the Queen of Nimbus Land lets out a horrified gasp and faints face first onto the floor of her throne room. The King kneels down and tries to comfort her, but to no avail. The sight of Luigi on the ground causes the citizens all-around the Waffle Kingdom to raise their hands into the air, every last one of them cheering out to the sky "Get up Luigi! You can do it Luigi!" and various other motivational words, not a single on of them wishing to accept that their hero could be dead. The one who really takes this devastating imagery to heart is one Princess Daisy of Sarassaland. Her eyelids are closed so tightly so that a single tear can not slip through them, and she has now kneeled onto the ground and tightly grasped the lower part of her dress with both hands. The citizens around her hear a single sniffle emerge from her nose, and proceed to walk over to give her a comforting hug. But it's the sight of Mario's fallen body that causes all of the world to lose any hope they had left within them. All the places that Mario had saved, from Rogueport to the Beanbean Kingdom, Dinosaur Island to even the far-off dimension of Flipside, there was not a single person who was able to feel even a hint of happiness...

Even the brute of a King, Bowser, who is currently sitting in the throne room of his castle all bandaged up with all eight of his children and both of his most trusted advisors Kamek and Kammy at his side, can't help but cry at the sight of his long-time rival flat on the ground. "Darn it...DARN IT!" Bowser's sudden outburst shakes the castle walls, and causes his children to jump to their feet. "Mario...I WAS YOUR RIVAL, I WAS THE ONE WHO HAD THE RIGHT TO BRING YOU DOWN! YOU GET BACK UP ON YOUR FEET RIGHT NOW...OR SO HELP ME, I...I..." Bowser stops yelling, and places both of his massive claws against his face. As he starts to cry, his children huddle together and begin to do the same as well.

_"I know everything looks hopeless, I know we are on the brink of annihilation...But please hear me out! There is still a way for us to be saved! The Elemental Overlord...No, Alex Whiter can still defeat the Dark King before it's too late! Look deep within you...You all have hopes and dreams worth living for! Parents, you want your kids to live a bright future, in a world without conflict. Kids, you want to be astronauts, scientists, or simple ol' family men or women! Just clear your mind, think of your aspirations, and we will be able to use that power to heal the Overlord and save our world from destruction so those dreams can come true!" _After Geno finishes his long-winded speech, there is a period of silence. A random Toad in Toad Town is about ready to fold their hands in front of their chest, when the same defiant Toad from earlier bats him one on the arm.

"Ow!" The praying Toad says. "What was that for?" The grumpy Toad refuses to respond and raises his fist high into the air. "Hey! I know you can hear me up there, so answer me this! How can you trust this boy to be our savior?" "Are you insane?" The praying Toad responds. "No, I'm being rational! Something you are neglecting to do just because you are scared!" The grumpy Toad yells out to his neighbor. "No, really Star Spirits, if you are listening then answer me! It seems to me like this boy is the reason we are in this situation in the first place! Maybe this boy really does deserve to die. You claim this Dark King is the evil one for threatening to destroy this planet...Well perhaps his ends justify the means, DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THAT?" Geno refuses to respond, so the grumpy Toad decides to keep verbally assaulting him. "And even if the Dark King really is evil, how do you not know that saving this Alex person won't come back to bite us later on? It's like you said, he has the power of a deity flowing within his body. At such an immature age, all it will take is a few wrong actions and he could snap and become an even worse threat than this Dark King that you are so worried about! ...Let me tell you, I have a family, I love them very much, and I don't want them to die...But I'm not going to toss my fate or their own into the hands of someone I don't even know, let alone trust!"

_"...Do you feel any better after saying what was on your mind?" _Geno says after a brief pause. "I...I do..." The grumpy Toad responds. _"Good. You do bring some valid points to the table, I will not deny that to you. It's true, none of know the reason as to why Joe Dark has pursued Alex to the point that he invited such a devastating force into his very soul...In the end we could be throwing our lives away just to defend the wrong person...That's what I thought at first anyways. But Alex has proven himself capable of putting other people's own needs ahead of his own. Take for instance when all of us were falling to our death at the Terra Cave. After Mario gave Alex all of the Element Stones he could've flown off and left us be...But no, he stayed headstrong in his determination and refused to leave us to the hands of death...That single act of kindness right there is enough reason for me to believe that he is good. You do not have to accept that as fact if you so wish it, but I just wanted to share my own views on the boy's allegiance..."_

"...Oh yeah? Well what about my other point?" The Toad asks. _"I understand what you are getting at, but if you ask me, I believe in giving others a chance...Maybe Alex won't end up being a good Overlord, maybe he will bring about the end of all life...Or he could end up being the savior of all worlds for all we know. It's up to the wheels of fate to decide that, and the gears of this world will fade to dust if we don't do something to stop the Dark King here and now! ...I will not resort to begging to convince any of you to help, so go ahead and decide what you want to do...and thank you, all of you who have listened to my continuous ramblings..." _Geno's voice fades out at the end, and the grumpy Toad shows a frown of disgust, not towards the Star Herald, but towards himself. "...My dream." The Toad holds his hands together and bows his head forward. "Is for my family to live a happy life..." Seeing this once grumpy man deliver a cheerful prayer to the Stars, the rest of the Toads hold their hands together and begin praying, as does Professor E. Gadd and Princess Peach. In fact, all-around the world people have begun to speak of their hopes and dreams, each person yelling out with a varying degree of enthusiasm in their voice.

_"I want to become a great Golfer!" "I want to help my mom realize her dream of becoming a nurse!" "I want my students to get a great education!" "I want to travel the world!" "I want to explore the Moon!" "I want to be a great Archeologist like my Professor!" "I want to one day be as great as Mario, even if I am a Goomba!" "I want to help Kolorado find the greatest ruins in the world!" "I want me and Koopie Koo to live happily in Poshley Heights!" "I want to one day visit the great Bob-omb Battlefield to see my distant cousin!" "I want everyone in the world to see my "Paper Mario" play and enjoy it to their hearts content!" "I want to always provide the people of the world with up-to-date mail with a smile on my face!" "I want to strive to be the strongest, just like the Great Gonzales!" "I want to instill terror into the hearts of those who visit my mansion, Bwahehehehehe!" "I want me and my sisters to live together without anymore bickering...And I want Mario to..." "I want to one day find my mom and dad!" "I want the world to be safe, so Scarlette can look down and see the smile on my face everyday..." "I want to always be there for the younguns, to be able to soar out of the water and save them from any tree!" "I want to find the greatest badge known to man, and to see that hunks fancy mustache once more~" "I want to be able to ride my cloud so high into the sky with Lakilulu that we will be able to touch the sun!" "I want to one day see Koopis again..." "Yo! Great Gonzales, you better be listening, because I want you to come back here one day and feel the RAWWWWK once more!" "I want to one day find a great treasure...Without running into a giant skeleton..." "I want to be there for the people of Beanbean Kingdom, arriving just as quickly as the flash from my hair!" "I want to one day see Lord Grodus' body restored!" "Yeah, what Crump said." "I want me and Valentina to one day raise a child as beautiful as herself!" "Oh darling, I do agree~" "Mario...You've grown so much...I want you to still be alive to be there for generations to come...I was not foolish in choosing to save you that day." "I want my son Mallow to return home safely, because when he does...I will retire..." "Yo! Commander Alpha! We all believe in you, and we want you to come back and show us move of your skills!" "Donkey Kong wants island to be safe, for both family and bananas!" "I want lots of a-money! My corporation isn't getting enough, confound it!" "Waluigi wants to beat that annoying green pest at something someday!" "I want Rosalina to return alive...Please, you've done so much for us Lumas..." "Peach...I hope you are doing well...And even though we are worlds apart...I want to see you again someday..." "Mario, you were a worthy opponent who fought with honor. I want to one day spar with you again, on the land, as equals once more..." "I want to find a good Rookie, see, so we can rob Peach's Castle see?" "I want Lord Bowser to finally conquer the Kingdom someday..." "I *achoo* want someone to thaw me out of this ice block...Seriously, I got a horrible cold... *sniffle*" "I want to one day shed this body of mine and join the Star Spirits above!" "I want my brother to one day regain his former strength and become Glitz Pit champion once more..." "I want all of my fellow Punis to be safe...And for the Elder to quit nagging." "OH, YOU THINK I'M NAGGY HUH? WELL JUST WAIT UNTIL MY DESIRE TO BE EVEN NAGGIER COMES THROUGH!" "I hope the Elder and Punio can one day get along..." "Dude! I just...Want to one day go back to our Fortress..." "Agreed." "I wish I wasn't afraid of ghosts...AH!" "I wish to one day find Mario and beat him for good. He'll never be able to handle my newest form!" "I want Mario to come back to Delfino Plaza for another vacation...Mainly because I never apologized for blaming him for our isle's pollution." "I want to one day rally the Boos together and make our own mansion that I can change at will!" "I want to one day race carts with a giant ghost!" "Mario, Tippi is doing well...Please stay alive so she doesn't have to witness your demise..." "I would like...Totally want the limited edition ActionCube720 with Super 4D Graphics and dual wielding motion controllers, nerr..." "I just...Hope that the Count is happy now." "I wish to one day redeem myself for the day I caused all of those men to be lost..." "Someday, I hope people will recognize the name of Punchinello!" "Someday, I hope I can find a cure for my ear drum damage thanks to this purple guy with long arms YELLING RIGHT NEXT TO ME!" "I wish that one day...I CAN GET THIS FREAKING CHOMP OF MY BACK!" "I want King Dad to let us work together once again to beat that Mario for good!" "I wish for our Lands to be safe from harm..." "I want Luigi to come back to me...Please, let this wish come true..." "I hope that the planet will never lose the light of the true Millenium Star..." "I wish to bring smiles and joy to everyone with my Carnival!" "I hope to one day find the Yoshi that will love me for who I am..." "I wish to one day go revisit Yoshi's Island, and maybe there I can make amends..." "I wish to continue ruling the Beanbean Kingdom, yet never once go mad with power." "I want to protect my men from anymore harm, tenhut!" "I want to make the best recipes in the world, even better than that of my sister!" "I will one day host the greatest quiz show the world has ever seen!" "Luigi...No, sorry, Mario. I enjoyed my time with you on that train. Let us solve another mystery together someday, eh?" "I want the Princess...Well, I feel this old Toad's wish has already been granted." "Please grant those heroes a safe return...It is all my fault for sending Mario on this quest in the first place..." _

In the Koopa King's castle, Bowser gets up off his throne and lifts one hand high into the air. Even though he pulls about ten muscles in the process, he doesn't regret doing what he is about to do. "Mario! My desire is for that brat Alex to kick the Dark King's butt straight back to the depths of hell he emerged from...But when he does, you and I are going to settle things, and I will accomplish my dream of conquering the Mushroom Kingdom! Bwahahahahahaha!" The last person to share their hopes and dreams is Princess Peach, who steps onto the rail of the balcony and holds her hands tightly in front of her chest. "Mario...You've always been there for me, you've never given up, even when the situation looked hopeless...So even now, when the world may end up drawing it's last breath...I hope you will not sink into despair...And please, come back so I can see that smiling face of yours once again..."

In Star Haven, the pure energy from all the hopes and dreams of the millions of people around the world flows in through the roof of the Sanctuary and is absorbed into the Star Rod placed at the very center. As more energy is gathered, the starlight aura surrounding the star of the mystical object grows bigger and brighter, until it eventually glows with the intensity of a white giant. "You did it Geno!" Eldstar blurts out in an excited tone. "Thank you Elder Star...It was because you believed in me." "And that, my little one, was my desire all along...For you to one day make me proud..." A teardrop drips from the bottom of the elder Star's right tear duct, which comes as a great surprise to Geno. "E-E-E-Eldstar..." The rest of the Star Spirits say. "Enough! We have no time to waste! Get ready to transfer the energy to the Elemental Overlord on my mark!"

While all of these events unfold around him, Alex is lying down within the shattered recesses of his mind. The area surrounded his body is cold, black, desolate, and an uncomfortable feeling looms around in the air. The shards of his sub-consciousness are slowly being put back together by the spirits of the Genesis Samurais and the Elemental Overlord, and as it nears completion a small grumble can be heard from underneath his breath. "He is waking up!" Acia's spirit yells out. "Keep going, we almost got all the pieces put together!" Ezekiel responds. After this point each piece they stick together causes Alex's subconscious to become more and more awake, until he is eventually able to push himself up off the ground and rise onto his own two feet, though his eyes look a bit drowsy for some reason. "Yawn...Hmm?" After patting the bottom of his lips with the tips of his right fingers, the seven soul orbs of the Genesis Samurais float over to Alex and return to their more human forms.

"It's nice to know that you are awake...The situation has become worse than I could've ever imagined it would become." The Elemental Overlord says. "Huh?" Alex blinks a few times, at first not understanding what the Overlord is getting at, until he suddenly remembers the last thing that happened to him before he was knocked unconscious. "Oh yeah...He got that new form...I couldn't do anything to harm him, and then he utterly wrecked my mind with some kind of...Magic, I think it was?" Alex rubs the lower part of his chin with his right hand and begins to mumble to himself about something. "Hey, Overlord, I got to ask you a quick question. You seemed certain that by gaining the Genesis Samurai's powers I would be able to defeat Joe Dark. Did you not think he would have this new form or something?" "If I must be honest, I did not. It must've been due to the Dark King's meddling and subsequent possession of the boy's body that caused this disaster to arise...The way things are now, you have no chance of stopping him."

The Genesis Samurais look over their shoulders at their former master, and upon realizing that after all of their efforts to protect both him and the new Overlord from danger, even after they sacrificed their very bodies to get their job done, they turn and lower their heads with a disappointed look in their eyes and a frown on their faces. Surprisingly, Alex seems to be only one who isn't ready to give up yet out of all of them. "So what?" He says. The seven warriors raise their heads up slightly to look at the boy as he begins to speak to them. "Fifty percent, twenty-five percent, even zero percent. You can tell me the odds, you can even provide the facts and details necessary to back up your claims, but you think I'm going to simply back down? If my body is still able to move, then I am going to fight!" Alex turns around so his back is facing the warriors. He then looks over his shoulder with a smile on his face. "Besides, I can't let all of your sacrifices go to waste now can I?"

Before Alex can begin to walk off, the Elemental Overlord stops him with an invisible wall. "It is one thing to never give up, but it is also another thing to rush into battle headfirst without a plan." Alex turns around and gives the Overlord's spirit orb a direct look in the eyes. The Overlord moves backwards a bit in amazement, for he sees the absolute determination resting deep within the boy's pupils, and with that he also is able to feel a rush of ideas rushing through the boy's mind. "But you have a plan...Don't you?" Is what he asks. "I do, actually." Alex responds. "Call me crazy, but wouldn't I be able to absorb the essences of the Element Stones and become much stronger as a result?" The Overlord turns his orb to the side and from beyond the light of his spirit Zeno can feel a disapproving glance piercing him from behind. "You forgot to check and confirm for certain that they had all of the stones?" The Overlord asks.

Zeno nervously rubs the back of his head with his right hand and lets out an embarrassed chuckle. "Well...Hehehe, after two-thousand years of guarding the temple, I guess that one detail just happened to slip my mind." "Well..." The Overlord turns his attention back towards Alex. "Luckily, this happens to work in our favor. The Elemental Stones are, after all, fragments of my lost powers. If you completely absorb them into your body, you will unlock a power strong enough to best the Dark King in his current state...Only, there is one small problem." "And what might that problem be?" Alex asks. "Even though we managed to repair your mind, your body is still damaged from the battle...And when I say damaged, I mean damaged to the point that you can't even move." Darnia's words almost causes Alex himself to lose all hope, which is quite a contrast from his determined attitude only a few minutes ago.

"Wait a second..." The Overlord's spirit rises to the top of this subconscious chamber and senses something heading right towards them from the outside world. "I wouldn't give up hope just yet, my boy. It seems as though help is on the way!" And indeed it is. Having fired the energy built up into the Star Rod up through the roof of the Sanctuary, the Star Spirits are busy using all of their might to direct the beam of holy energy towards the direction of the temple. Thanks to their efforts, a pillar of star energy shines down through the dark clouds in the sky and slams right down onto Alex's body, encompassing him completely within it's holy shell. The sudden appearance of this phenomenon causes Joe Dark's concentration to break for a brief second as he changes his focus towards Whiter's body. "WHAT?" He screams out in a fit of absolute anger. "What is going on here?"

As the scars and puncture wounds on Alex's body are sealed up by new layers of skin, inside of his mind the boy gets a smile on his face and begins to jump for joy. "Haha! Lady luck is on our side today!" It seems as though Alex's excitement may be happening too soon, for outside of his body the scars suddenly stop getting healed and being to slowly open back up again. "It...IT'S NOT ENOUGH ELDSTAR!" Skolar screams out while straining himself to keep the beam steady. "KEEP PUSHING, THIS IS OUR LAST HOPE, WE CAN'T AFFORD TO GIVE UP NOW!" The mustache'd Star yells out in pain. Back on the temple, Joe Dark notices that Alex's wounds are returning, and upon seeing this he begins to break into laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA! WHERE IS YOUR MIRACLE NOW WHITER? I'M ALMOST DONE, AND YOU WILL SOON BE LIBERATED FROM THIS WORLD FOREVER!"

"No he won't! Especially not at the hands of someone like you!" A familiar voice rings through Joe Dark's ear. The Dark King, surprised to hear this person speaking to him, lowers his head to look at Whiter's body. In his line of sight are the phantasmal projections of Mario and the other five heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom standing before the pillar of light. The person the Dark King had heard was Driad, who is unflinching in his resolve as he stares directly at the malicious king. "I-I-Impossible! How are you all still-" Then it dawns on the Dark King, the one thing he had neglected to do thanks to Rosalina's timely interruption. Before he can proclaim his foolish mistake, Gemini decides to say it for him. "You never killed us, instead you thought you could break us with your talks of fear and hatred? Well guess what, I think YOU are the one who is scared of us!" "Now your inability to finish us off will mark your end, for we will provide the last bit of hope necessary to get Alex back on his feet!" Alpha yells out. "No...NO!" Joe Dark frantically tries to finish charging his attack up, refusing to let all of his hard work be in vain. "Deny your error all you want Joe Dark, Dark King, or whatever you choose to call yourself! You can knock us down individually, but united we are a wall that will block you from carrying out your sadistic goals!" Mallow says. "Now then, you want to know what our dream is?" Luigi asks. Mario viciously points one finger out towards Joe Dark. "We want you out of our Kingdom, and away from this planet!" The energy projected from each of the heroes' bodies flows into the pillar of light, and in an instant Alex's wounds are fully healed up. The projections of the heroes vanish the moment the Star Pillar releases a flash of light from within.

"Gaaaah!" The flash of light not only blinds Joe Dark, but it also breaks his concentration enough that his attack is unable to be completed and the darkness retreats back into his body. Within seconds Alex is seen being pushed back onto his feet by an unknown force. As his eyes regain the life they once had before, he looks at both of his hands before clenching them tightly into the shape of a fist. When the Star Pillar vanishes, Joe Dark opens his eyelids to reveal his now bloodshot eyes. He tries to focus on Whiter between the tips of his fingers, but his vision is blurred, so all he can make out is that some round objects are rising out of his rival's pockets and then all seven of them are seen encircling his body. "Joe Dark!" Alex calls out to him. "This fight of ours has been nothing but a series of one of us having the upper hand on the other person. Now that I'm back in the game, I'm going to show you, A TRUE FIGHT!"

Alex folds his arms out by the sides of his body and begins to enter a state of absolute concentration as the Elemental Stones glow their respective colors and send their energy flowing into his body in the form of electricity. As the young Overlord can feel the power of the elements being drawn into his very being, he begins to experience visions of the very forces of nature themselves. He sees a tranquil jungle, a raging ocean sending tidal waves smashing into a massive cliff-side, a tornado tearing through a deserted wasteland, a bolt of lightning breaking apart an abandoned warehouse, an earthquake ripping apart the ground of a lone island and upsetting the tides surrounding it, a snowstorm blowing through the a mountaintop, and finally he sees a close-up of the sun as it sends solar flares hurtling across the galaxy. Then Alex manages to find his inner zen and begins to think about the good things that these destructive elements have brought to the world. He envisions a woman planting roses in her garden, some children splashing each other with water in a pool, a father and his son playing kite on a windy day in the park, a simple housewive turning on her electric powered lamp in her house and sitting down to a read a book to her sickly daughter, some builders using stones to put together a house, some kids and their parents having a snowball fight in the middle of an open field, and finally he remembers a moment from his past where his dad brought out the ol' Barbeque for the first time in his life and flame-broiled some burgers for his entire family.

Having thought about the good and bad of all of the elements, the stones slowly begin to disintegrate as their energy reserves reach empty. A ring of golden flames appears around Alex's feet, as his flaming sword reappears in his right hand without the triggers being on them anymore, and flames made out into the shape of a pair of wings appear on his back. The fire is brushed by a cold breeze, revealing that a pair of red-orange wings with dark yellow feathers have now attached themselves to Alex's back. As the wings flap back and forth, the ring of fire is blown to and fro, eventually spreading out to cover a wider area around the boy. Alex opens his eyelids to show that his eyes have now become a majestic fire red color. He then holds his sword up into the air and points it at Joe Dark as a mystical golden aura shines brightly around his body. "I will not yield to you anymore. If you can still gaze upon my image with those blinded eyes of yours Dark King, then know this well. I have been reborn, time and time again I will rise from the ashes of despair to stand in your way. I am the unwavering flame, I am this universe's guiding light. I am the Elemental Overlord, Alex Whiter!"

_Next Time: Ten Seconds to Sin_


	51. Chapter 51

**Chapter 51: Joe Dark VIII: Dethroning the Darkness**

Leftover bits of energy from the Star Rod's beam float over to Rosalina's body and sprinkle down onto her in the form of sparkling dust. Now somewhat rejuvenated by the energy, the Princess moves her right arm towards the direction of the wand that rests right next to her. Once it's in her grasp, she slowly raises her head up and opens her eyes to find out just what has transpired during her period of unconsciousness. Her vision blurred after her sudden reawakening, all she can see is the golden aura surrounding Alex, but seeing as she doesn't actually know him she mistakes the person projecting the aura as Mario. "Ma...Mario?" She weakly utters out. As she struggles to get on her own two feet, her vision becomes increasingly clearer, but it isn't until she begins to walk towards the figure that she is able to see who is truly the owner of the aura.

"Oh...Forgive me Overlord, I assumed you to be someone else." Rosalina says in a rather dignified, apologetic tone. Alex glances slightly to the left and nods his head before looking back at the Dark King. The Princess turns her attention towards the armored figure of malice as well, as her eyes widen in fear. "So...I assume you have a solution for dealing with him? If so, allow me to offer my services to you with what little power I have left..." As she lowers her head and begins to advance forward to stand by Alex's side, the young Overlord raises his blade to block her path, and she instantly stops in place. "Rosalina, that is your name, right?" He asks in a calm tone. "Yes...I'm surprised you know that, seeing as I have yet to introduce myself..." Rosalina responds. "As much as I respect your decision to fight, I-"

Having regained full use of his vision, Joe Dark stares down at Rosalina with a furious, demonic look in his eyes and dispels his sword before folding his right fist back behind his body while filling it full of dark energy. "You miserable, cretin of a woman! PAY FOR YOUR INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR LIFE!" The Dark King punches the air itself, sending an orb of darkness crashing right through an alternate dimension before emerging on the other side and flying straight towards Rosalina's head. Alex jumps in the way in the blink of an eye before the Princess can even react to the attack and uses his sword to quickly cut the orb into a million pieces. This act of defense not only impresses the Star Princess, but greatly irritates the Dark King as well. "Whiter...You..."

"Look, I don't have much time, so I'll be quick in explaining what I want you to do. I want you to use your magic to get Mario and the others out of here so they don't end up becoming collateral damage while I take down Joe Dark." "I can do that, but what if he tries to attack me before I have gotten everyone away?" Alex quickly gets on one knee and holds his blade behind his back. "Don't worry, I'll take care of that part." Using his one standing leg to propel himself up into the air, the young Overlord ends up leaving behind a thin stream of flames in his wake as he charges at the Dark King. Blinded by anger, Joe Dark is unable to respond to Whiter's movement with his own attack and is promptly rammed hard in the chest by his rival, who uses his shoulder to push the Dark King into the dark clouds in the sky. Rosalina breathes a heavy sigh of relief and begins to move towards Mallow's body, as she floats over she glances over her shoulder at the sky with a smile on her face. "I wish you the best of luck...Please save this planet that I once had the honor of inhabiting..."

Having now pushed the Dark King high into the clouds, Alex pulls his body back a bit and uses his flaming sword to knock him away with one direct cut across the chest. The molten heat protruding from the blade leaves a melted gash in the armor, which Joe Dark is quick to put his hand over, despite how painful it is to the touch. ""Grrr..." He removes his hand from his armor and summons his sword back into his grip, which he then uses to send a crescent shaped wave of darkness at Alex. He counters with a flame wave of his own, and the two attacks cancel each other out. While Whiter was distracted with this attack, the liquefied metal of the Dark King's armor is turned into darkness and used to perfectly seal up the missing section of it.

"Not bad Whiter...At least you are now capable of putting a dent in my armor, even if it's existence is merely...Temporary." After complimenting his rival for his accomplishment, Joe Dark extends his free hand out and gets an arrogant look in his eyes. "But tell me, do you honestly think that a change in eye color and the sudden appearance of wings on your back will have changed anything? If anything, you have just given me another body part to rip right off the bonds of your flesh." The Dark King tilts his head to the left and looks down towards the ground. "A wise decision though, to knock me up here so I wouldn't go after your so-called friends." While Joe Dark is distracted, Alex silently folds his arms behind his back and begins to charge flames in the palms. "Of course, it matters little in the end, for when I have ended your life, I-" When the armored king raises his head back up, the right side of his face is immediately burned by a searing beam of flames fired off by Alex.

As the beam vanishes into the dark sky, it is revealed that both the skin and flesh have been melted away, and the remaining flames crackle and pop as they rest upon the surface of the Dark King's skull. "Well, that wasn't very nice..." Alex cringes slightly as he watches Joe Dark's bony jaw move in unison with the remaining flesh covered part of his face. This gruesome image vanishes in a matter of seconds, thanks in part to Joe Dark's regenerative powers. The Dark King then raises his sword out in front of his body and stares at his arch nemesis with a hint of bloodlust in his eyes. "Allow me to return the pain tenfold." Joe Dark vanishes in a flash and reappears in front of Alex, bringing his sword down hard onto his face. Whiter absorbs the brunt of the attack like a brick wall, the impact of the slash releasing a green colored shockwave from his forehead in the process. This greatly intrigues the Dark King, not only because his sword is powerful enough to cut through even the strongest of materials, but when the shockwave appeared he could've sworn he heard the sound of a faint, beastly roar coming from afar.

Alex retaliates by opening his mouth and preparing to fire a blast of flame from within, but the Dark King back flips out of the way before he is burned by the attack. Joe Dark skids along the air and tosses his sword out like a boomerang. The young Overlord, once he stops breathing flames, lowers his head and moves out of the way of the sword's path. The malicious king guides the sword along a new direction, curving it through the air so it flies towards Whiter's backside. Anticipating this move, Alex folds his wings in and holds his own sword over his right shoulder to block the sword mid-strike. As the Dark King's blade presses against his own, he guides it gently around his body by twisting his arm around until the weapon is in front of him. He then uses all of his might to push the blade back towards it's owner. Joe Dark grabs his weapon by the handle and dispels it back into the darkness, then he proceeds to rush through the air towards the Overlord with an orb of darkness at the ready in his left hand.

When he is within arms length, Alex quickly tries to cut the Dark King's head clean from his neck, but he misses due to him reeling his head back to get out of the way. While he has pulled back, Joe Dark flicks the orb of darkness at Whiter's body, but just like before his attack is absorbed without him flinching, only this time around a blue shockwave is released from the impact zone and the Dark King hears a faint, robotic click. Before Whiter can respond with another attack, the malicious king lurches forward and slams his right fist into Alex's face, which causes the same blue shockwave plus sound to be released from his body. Thinking that this is all just a fluke, Joe Dark follows up his previous attack by coating his left fist with a shell made of dark matter and slams it right into Whiter's gut. Though the Overlord is knocked back a few yards, no damage is dealt, and the same shockwave plus sound combination is heard again. Before he skids to a stop, Alex dispels his sword with a puff of smoke and holds his right hand out in front of his body with the fingers positioned so the thumb is sticking upward and the pointer is aimed at the Dark King, with the remainder of the fingers curled tightly into his palm.

The thumb's fingernail scrapes across the atoms hidden deep within the clouds and causes them to split. The energy surging from within those microscopic entities is sent flowing through the hand until it gathers at the tip of his pointer in the form of a crimson orb of electricity with black energy surrounding the inner core. "Bang." As Alex stops in place a hundred gigavolts of atomic energy are fired from the orb in the form of a series of branching lightning bolts. Each individual bolt strikes a different part of the Dark King's armor and proceed to quickly burn through it to strike the nerves that rest underneath his skin. Alex makes certain to disable both of Joe Dark's arms and legs, but as his limbs lay limp beside him Joe Dark manages to let out an excited chuckle. "Oh come on, surely you must know that I can recover from an injury like this." The Dark King's taunt is met by his opponent appearing in front of him in the blink of an eye with his flaming sword held horizontally out in front of his face and a confident look burning deep within in his eyes. "I do know" Is his response.

Alex is quick to try and decapitate Joe Dark with his blade, but he merely summons his own blade and bites down onto the handle with his mouth, swerving his face to the right in order to block the young Overlord's attack. As his eyes widen in anticipation for Whiter's next move, he realizes that he has regained the feeling in his legs. "Excellent..." He thinks to himself. By gritting his teeth and pressing hard against Whiter's flaming blade, Joe Dark is able to overpower him and force him to jump back before the tip of the blade strikes and slits his throat. Joe Dark spits his weapon out of his mouth and it is promptly dispelled into the darkness once more. Quickly turning his head around to reveal the frenzied yet ecstatic look in his eyes, the Dark King leaps into the air and pours all the dark energy that he can into the bottom of his feet, morphing them into the shape of several small spikes for added impact.

The left foot is the first to slam into Alex's face, a grey shockwave being released from his body along with the howl of a furious wolf echoing through the skies. Joe Dark follows up by kicking his face with his other foot, causing the same thing to happen as it did before. Not willing to give up though, the Dark King is ever persistent in his assault and continues to rapidly pound Whiter's face with a barrage of kicks. Eventually the constant sounds of wolves in his ears causes him to flip kick himself away, spinning once through the air until his body is floating straight up in front of his rival's forward gaze. "Grr..." Joe Dark grits his teeth as he regains the feeling in his arms and summons his sword in the right hand once more. "You are beginning to piss me off Whiter...Why can't I damage you?"

The Dark King dashes forward and raises his sword above his head, draining the darkness from his aura to help power it up. Alex holds one hand out and calls forth a vine from his palm that lashes itself around the middle of the Dark King's blade, and with a single tug it is pulled free from his grasp. The young Overlord then tosses the blade behind his body and dispels his own blade, replacing it as a weapon by turning his hand to solid quartz. The moment the blade was freed from his grasp, Joe Dark looks up at his hands and in a moment of revelation he understands just how stupid this reckless move of his truly was. Distracted by his own idiocy, the Dark King is mostly unaware of Whiter's next move until his fist meets the left side of his face, smashing his jaw bones with a mighty crunch.

The punch is also powerful enough to send him flying quickly through the air, but as it turns out Alex is not done yet. The young Overlord summons his sword back to him and flies through the air at great speeds to catch up to the Dark King's catapulted body and begins to rapidly slash it with his heated blade, cutting through the multiple tendons, bones, and organs that rest within his body in an attempt to find even ONE weak point to exploit in case this doesn't finish him off then and there. When he feels he has done enough, Alex leaps forward and watches as the Dark King's body is disassembled into various tiny pieces that float grotesquely in the air with darkness leaking from the flesh. The dismembered right hand twitches slightly, then leaps straight into the air to grab the blade of darkness as it returns to it's owner.

The hand turns itself around on it's own free will and charges towards Alex. Sensing it's movement, the young Overlord turns himself around and in a brief moment of non-stoicness, his pupils shrink in shock as he raises his sword to block the hand's strike. When the first attack has failed, the hand changes targets by pulling back and making a slash aimed at his legs. Alex blocks this attack as well by twisting his arms around so the blade is pointed downward. "Grr..." In this position, the young Overlord finds it difficult to use his full strength, so he decides to let go of his sword for a brief moment and jumps into the air as the blade pushes through his flaming sword and misses his legs completely. But Alex is not of the clear yet, for the hand re-directs his path by curving upward through the air until it's level with his body once more. The young Overlord extends his hand out and calls his sword back into his grasp, then quickly spins around and smashes the Dark King's blade with so much force that it is literally split in two, which then causes both parts to miss his body completely.

After they have passed him by, Alex turns around and flings out one fireball from his left hand that turns the pursuing hand to ashes. It is upon it's disintegration that Alex notices four thin strings falling down from the sky where the hand once was, all of them connected to the fingers of the Dark King's other remaining hand, whose body has been merged back together while Alex was busy dealing with that minor distraction. With a flick of the wrist, not only are the strings now gone, but the remnants of the blade are covered in a eerie purple aura and in an instant they are fused back together and the complete form is sent back into the grip of his only hand. But he doesn't remain one-handed for long, for the ashes of his left hand fly down to it's proper destination and regenerates to it's fleshy state, where the muscles of the arm lash out from within and connect to the muscles near the palm before tying themselves together perfectly and meshing the hand to the skin of the arm.

His body then rises up until his arm can reach out and grab the reformed blade in his right hand before turning around and brandishing it at Whiter. Alex rubs the back of his head and chuckles to himself. "Damn, you just won't stay down, huh?" He says. The Dark King responds with a "Hmph" and lowers his arms down beside him. "I am the Dark King after all, and darkness is a force of nature that exists all-around us. You can try all you might, call forth flames brighter than even the brightest of stars, but in the end there will still be one speck of darkness hiding somewhere in this mighty universe waiting for it's chance to strike back." Alex dispels his sword for a moment and folds his arms out in front of his chest. "So you say..." He responds.

"Hehehehe...I am merely pointing out my views, I could care less if you agree with me or not Whiter..." After lowering his head to laugh, Joe Dark raises his head back up and stares at him with intrigue in his eyes. "But you know what I do care about? The fact that I myself seem to be unable to harm you, no matter what I happen to toss your way. Of course, someone as smart as you would never reveal such a secret to one as irredeemable and dishonorable as me, now would you?" "Ha...You know Joe Dark, for one whose very existence at this moment centers around such a grim concept, it is your very powers that are preventing you from harming me. For you see, I cannot be harmed by beings of pure darkness while in this form." The Dark King raises an eyebrow, finding Whiter's explanation to be nothing more than a lie. He points his blade at the young Overlord once more with a grin on his face. "You actually expect me to believe that?" "Meh..." Alex says with a shrug. He then holds his right hand out and calls forth his flaming sword once more. "You can choose to not believe me, but I'm just saying it like it is..." "Well I don't care what kind of protection you have surrounding your body Whiter. Sooner or later, I WILL find a way to break through it and grind your bones to dust!"

_Next Time: Fatal Crash_


	52. Chapter 52

**Chapter 52: Joe Dark IX: Why Should a King Cry?**

The two warriors continue their battle, both of them starting off the second part of their mighty clash by slashing their swords in the air to send a wave of darkness and flames respectively at each other. Before the attacks collide in the center, the two of them charge at each other and quickly exchange blows with their weapons before leaping back and charging them up with the energies that they are most associated with, where they then rush back at each other and clash blades once more. The Elemental Overlord and the Dark King teleport rapidly around in the air, after emerging from each teleportation they clash blades time after time again, releasing a shockwave of energy during each and every instance that the metal of the blades come together mid-strike.

"Not bad..." Joe Dark says in a complimentary tone. "You at least know how to use your sword...But are the rest of your powers up to snuff, Whiter?" The Dark King that Alex is currently fighting turns out to be an afterimage, as the real one appears behind him and attempts to jab the tip of his blade into he back of Whiter's neck. Like usual, a shockwave, this time colored yellow, emerges from Whiter's body in the area the Dark King struck, and a regal, confident laugh fills the air. "Are you mocking me?" Joe Dark yells out, going for another slash in a fit of rage but only managing to cause another shockwave to emerge from his rival's body, and the same laugh that angered the Dark King before continues to echo through his eardrums.

Alex finally chooses to react to his arch nemesis' attack by spinning around and performing a circular slash aimed at his forehead. Joe Dark bends his head back to avoid it, the tip of the flaming sword only managing to ignite and burn off a few hairs on his head. With Whiter busy dealing with the recoil from his slash, the Dark King floats back and raises his head back up before attempting to stab Alex through the gut with his blade. The young Overlord tosses his sword out of his hand and swings both of his arms off to the side while moving his body out of the way of the attack, then backhands the Dark King's blade free from his grip with his own right hand. The two warriors hold their left hands out beside their bodies to call their weapon back into their hands, but while they are doing that they aim their right fist at each other's face, the tips of their knuckles crunching together mid-blow.

When the two of them have grabbed hold of their weapons once more, they pull back their fists and spin their blades around until they are held out diagonally in front of their waists. Alex raises his sword into the air, but Joe Dark is quick to react and places his blade horizontally in front of his chest to block the attack aimed at the lower part of his chin. Deciding that close-range swordplay isn't going to be enough to take the Dark King down at this rate, the young Overlord dispels his blade and flies backwards at great speeds while spewing frost out from the palms of his out held hands to freeze the air around them to sub-zero levels. With this cold temperature causing the Dark King's breath to become visible, Alex slows down his momentum and snaps his fingers to cause the breath to crystallize, impaling the inside of Joe Dark's mouth with hundreds of jagged objects.

The Dark King only considers the ice crystal to be a minor nuisance, and uses his great strength to rip it right through his mouth, tearing through both parts of his lips and the center of his tongue at the same time. As he tosses the bloody object off to the side, his wounds heal up and he chooses to keep his mouth shut to avoid Whiter taking advantage of his chilled breath from this point onward. But with one threat deal with comes another, as his rival slams his hands together, causing two golden boulders spawned from out of nowhere to smash together in order to crush the Dark King between their girth. Just like the previous attack, this only manages to be a momentary distraction, as Joe Dark sends dark energy into the boulders, overloading them and causing to burst into chunks that plummet to the ground below.

Alex lowers his hands and forces the chunks to levitate in the air for a few brief seconds before igniting them with an aura of fire. As they begin to melt the young Overlord lifts them into the air and moves them around until they surround the Dark King, suspended in place until they are given the order to fly at their target due to Alex taking his pointer fingers and swishing them through the air in front of him. Faced with this massive bombardment of golden meteorites, the Dark King coats his blade in a dark aura and slashes it rapidly in the air around him, making it physically impossible for any of the molten fragments to even touch him. Instead, the attacks bounce off his blade, and while this irritates Alex slightly he decides to continue trying to break through his arch nemesis' guard, guiding the meteors back around a few more times until the heats causes them to melt into nothingness.

With no need to defend any longer, Joe Dark flips his sword around and holds it near his left hip, then charges through the air so quickly that for a second he vanishes before making his reappearance right in front of Whiter's face to deliver a diagonally slash to it. The young Overlord turns his body to the side and raises his left hand up to block the attack with the back of it. The Dark King jumps back as his rival flips back around and summons his flaming sword in his right hand to bring down onto his head with great force put into it. Though the attack misses, Alex snaps his fingers to create a fire orb in front of him before raising his hand into the air to place the orb right on top of his pointer finger, with the thumb cocked into the air ready to fire another attack at Joe Dark.

...Or so the Dark King thinks. Instead Whiter uses his thumb to compress the flames into the grasp of his tightened fist as he pulls it back behind his body. Once he wraps his pointer finger in with the rest of them, the young Overlord thrusts his fist forward and slams the air with so much force that the flames are forced right out of his hand and launched at Joe Dark in the form of a massive, burning phoenix head, which screeches loudly to announce it's arrival. The Dark King raises his sword to block the attack before it can burn right through him, his eyes widening in panic to confirm that he is clearly worried about this attack. Some of the flames slip around his sword and singe random parts of his armor, which causes him to put up an offensive against this flaming head by summoning two demonic claws from his aura to lash at and weaken it.

Both of them are only able to perform one strike on the head before the pressure emanating from it crushes them into dust. Still, it's because of that minor effort that Joe Dark is able to pour all of his strength into his blade and destroy the flaming head in one fell swoop. As the flames spread around the corrupted sky, Alex rushes forward with his fist surrounded in electricity, only for the Dark King to somersault over his body and make a slash at his back, which causes a brown shockwave to emerge from his body, followed by the sound of a loud drill grinding in his eardrums. The young Overlord skids to a stop and performs a back flip as the Dark King lands on the air where his rival once stood. Alex spins around and tosses his sword at Joe Dark, but he turns around and swings his own blade into the air to deflect it away. Whiter quickly dispels his sword with a single thought and covers his left foot in solid concrete to protect it as the Dark King turns around and goes for another slash.

Once the concrete shatters, gravity takes hold and Alex begins to descend. He stops right behind Joe Dark, only for his arch nemesis to turn around and grab him by the neck as he turns himself around. Before the Dark King can lift his blade and jam it into his rival's skull, the young Overlord sets both of his palms on fire and uses them to push against the chest portion of his armor, this effort also breaking the hold he had on his neck in the process. Greatly entertained by this exchange of power, Joe Dark continues his assault by stopping in place and slashing the air vertically, sending a thick, crescent wave of darkness at his rival. Alex takes a deep breath in, summons his sword, and cuts the wave in half with one precise strike, sending both halves flying through the air until the inability to keep themselves together causes them to explode, the force of the blast blowing away most of the clouds that rest beneath them.

Alex is about ready to perform another attack when the Dark King sheathes his blade and begins to clap his hands slowly, eyes filled with glee as a chilling grin can be seen on his face. Curious as to why his arch nemesis has stopped the battle, the young Overlord stands up in a normal fashion and holds his sword near the side of his body while raising his left eyebrow in suspicion. "I'm sorry to interrupt our battle with this ill-timed pause Whiter, but I must congratulate you...You have certainly made my efforts worthwhile." Joe Dark does one more clap that is louder than the rest before placing his arms beside his body, closing his eyelids slightly, and staring into his rival's burning eyes. "I will admit, I was enraged when I saw you come back after I had annihilated every single bit of your mind, even right down to sub-consciousness...But the results have been completely worth it!" The last bit of his sentence is spoken in a nerve-wracking, joyous tone, sending a chill down Alex's spine as he continues to listen to him speak.

"That barrier...Or whatever you got around that's preventing me from harming you, it's a complex little ability that I have yet to figure out. It's quite clear that what you told me is a lie though, seeing as I was able to grab onto your neck and crush it slightly. If what you said earlier held true, you wouldn't have been harmed. So tell me, now that I've seen through your little fib, will you be a little more willing to divulge the truth to me? Depending on your response, maybe I will give you a few hints in regards to bypassing my regenerative powers..." The Dark King extends his hand out peacefully, but Alex knows the type of game he is playing and raises his sword into the air, pointing it directly at his arch nemesis' throat.

"I suppose that would be a no? A pity..." Joe Dark lowers his hand and pulls his sword out of his holster and into his grip once more with a single thought. "If there were even a slight chance of you following through with your agreement, if our battle was merely a skirmish between two friends, I would honor your terms and the two of us would spill every last detail about our powers...But I'm not a fool, you are a warrior of the dishonorable sort, and thus your promises will only lead to ruin." Whiter's words are spoken without any hesitation, his determination to not succumb to the Dark King's tricks causing his arrogant grin to fade away, instead replaced by a disappointed frown. "Very well Whiter...I gave you a chance, but now we shall continue our battle, and you will soon come to realize...HOW FUTILE IT IS TO TRY AND KILL ME!"

Joe Dark charges at Whiter and raises his sword up high, ready to slash. Alex responds by slashing the air in front of him, but his reaction turns out to be too soon thanks to the Dark King slowing himself down for one brief second to fake his rival out so he could have an opening. He then proceeds to take advantage of said opening to try and cut Whiter at the throat, but just like every other time a shockwave emerges from Whiter's body, this time colored an icy blue color as the chinking sound of ice rapidly crystallizing can be heard in his head. The young Overlord counters by cutting the hand that held the blade clean off of the arm it's attached to, dispelling his own flaming sword in a puff of fire only a second afterwards. Before the hand can be reattached via the Dark King's terrifying powers, Alex punches him away with a quick left jab and tightly grabs the floating hand with his right one.

The force applied in his grip causes the dismembered hand to let go of the blade, and only a moment later does Alex cover it in flames to burn it to ashes. When the young Overlord raises his head and sees that the Dark King has already regained his hand and is motioning his pointer finger towards his body to taunt him, he quickly folds his arms behind his back, charges an orb of flames in them, and fires a huge beam made of that element at the arrogant king. Joe Dark floats over the attack, grabs hold of his blade with both hands and holds it behind his neck as if he were ready to hit a baseball, then swings it back and forth out in front of him to send many waves of darkness to cut through the flaming beam and attack Whiter.

The young Overlord's attack ends soon after though, and upon lifting his head up and watching as the volley of waves gets ready to bombard him, he raises his sword to block two attacks in rapid succession before back flipping repeatedly to avoid the rest of them. When he lands on his feet in the air, Alex spreads his wings out and flaps them once, sending a flurry of flaming feathers out at the Dark King. Joe Dark holds his left arm out to block every last one of those pointed projectiles, then with a flick of the wrist he sends out his own flurry of dark, jagged needles at his rival. Alex plummets downward slightly to get out of the way, but a few of the needles hit the back of his wings, causing a red shockwave to emerge from them as a dragonic roar ruptures the Dark King's eardrums. Though he does not know it, his rival Whiter had a look of panic on his face the very moment the red shockwave emerged.

"Darn it! Ok, focus Alex, just need to stall for a minute..." The young Overlord thinks to himself as he stops his descent and curves through the air to then rise back up beneath the Dark King's body. Due to his ears still ringing from the roar, Joe Dark is distracted long enough for Whiter to take his fist and uppercut him right in the jaw with the broad part of his sword. As he is knocked into the air, Alex dispels his weapon, pulls his right hand behind his back, and sets his thumb, middle finger, and pinky on fire. Once the Dark King is right in front of him, the young Overlord slams his hand through the air, his burning fingernails scarring the darkened sky with the mark that one would expect to see from a Phoenix's talons and slashing through his archnemesis' armor with enough force that he is sent flying away.

Alex follows up this attack by clapping his hands together so hard that the friction created when he pulls them apart is enough to spark flames in the palms. He lowers his hands down below his waist with the flames pointed up in the direction of space, then proceeds to thrust them above his head, causing a ring of flames to form around Joe Dark's body as he recovers from the previous attack. Two seconds later, a pillar of fire erupts from the circle and scorches it's target with levels of heat comparable to that felt coming from the sun's surface. Not even this can stop Joe Dark's rampage, however, and he emerges from those flames like a monster straight out of hell with his sword held behind his back. As they have many times already, the Dark King and the Elemental Overlord clash blades, but the circumstances have changed since the last time this happened.

Alex's face looks ready to release sweat, a sign that he is nervous for some unexplained reason. Joe Dark is quick to pick up on his rival's change in emotions, and grins from ear to ear. "What's the matter Whiter? You are looking a little unhinged...And you are attacking rather recklessly now..." The young Overlord cannot hear his arch nemesis' words, for he is busy dealing with his own thoughts. "Just fifteen more seconds..." His train of thought is derailed as the young Overlord feels something sharp puncture his left shoulder, as it is revealed that the Dark King that he is currently locking blades with is just another afterimage that fades away in a matter of seconds. The real one stands behind him, his sword held with both hands as he pulls it right out of his rival's shoulder with a grin on his face.

"I knew it..." The Dark King says with confidence in his voice. Alex dispels his sword, covers the front of his wound with his right hand, and turns around to face his enemy as he raises his own sword above his head. "You can't be protected any longer..." "4..." Alex counts down in his head. "It's been fun Whiter, but you can't do anything..." "2..." "EXCEPT DIE!" "1..." Joe Dark lowers his sword down with enough force put into his strike to shatter a small planet, but the moment Whiter has been waiting for has come, and he opens his eyes without fear as the sword strikes his body and causes a green shockwave to emerge, followed by a deep-voiced female's "Hmph" to be heard in Joe Dark's ears. As the Dark King's expression changes from arrogance to anger and he begins to continuously swing his sword as hard as he can onto Whiter's head, but every strike creates another shockwave of the same color, and the same sounds continue to be heard in his head. As Alex quietly chuckles to himself, Joe Dark breaks away from Whiter and screams to the heavens.

"DAMN IT! DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING? WHY DO YOU ACCURSED GODS CONTINUE TO LET THIS TRASH SURVIVE? AFTER ALL HE HAS DONE TO ME...AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE HAD TO ENDURE TO GET TO THIS POINT, YOU CAN'T ALLOW ME TO EXACT MY WELL-DESERVED VENGEANCE?" As Joe Dark looks ready to crack under the pressure that insanity has wrought upon him, Alex looks at him with pity in his eyes, but at the same time wonders what he meant by "All he has done to me..." "What are you talking about? I never saw you once in my life before until you followed me to this planet!" "SHUT UP! JUST...SHUT UP WHITER! EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT…AND…AND THESE INSOLENT PEOPLE KEEP DEPENDING ON YOU LIKE YOU ARE THEIR MESSIAH!" "Have you lost it? They are depending on me right now because I AM their only hope, because I have to deal with both you, and the catastrophic occurrences that YOU yourself have brought down upon this peaceful planet!"

"THEY ARE ALL FOOLS! EVERY...LAST...ONE OF THEM! NO ONE KNOWS THE TRUTH, NO ONE KNOWS HOW YOUR EXISTENCE CAUSED A GREAT INJUSTICE TO GO UNPUNISHED...A CRIME THAT HAS CONTINUED TO HAUNT ME TO THIS VERY DAY, DRIVING ME DEEPER AND DEEPER OFF THE EDGE OF SANITY UNTIL THIS POINT IN TIME...AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT WHITER, YET YOU CONTINUE TO ACT ALL INNOCENT, PRETENDING LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!" At this point Joe Dark's eyes have become completely blank, his voice becoming hoarse as the strain of yelling proves to be too much for him, and soon he is panting heavily to regain his breath. Alex continues to look on, shaking his head back and forth at this saddening sight. The Dark King raises his head back up and grasps the right side of his face with his respective hand, and begins to laugh to himself. "Hahahaha...Ok Whiter...Since you seem to have forgotten, I will enlighten you...As to how your very existence prevented the one who murdered my entire family from being brought to justice!"

_Next Time: The Dark Tragedy_


	53. Chapter 53

**Chapter 53: Joe Dark X: Beginning of the Descent**

"Now listen closely Whiter...You will never get a chance to hear this tale of mine again after today...I will weave together in your mind, the tragic tale that led me to this moment. The sinful act brought down upon me by the gods, upon which your very existence prevented justice from being delivered..."

_"It all started five years ago...When I was merely a cheerful young lad who had no clue about the hidden terrors that shrouded the world in it's cloak of fear...At the time I was living in a mansion with my two parents. You see Whiter, my father was a highly respected senator of the United States, having served Congress for more than twenty years...My mother was a librarian; a humble, kind-hearted woman who chose to work in a regular library despite the many offers she received to upgrade to a government owned building. You would think that because of his position, that my father would've neglected me, leaving my mother to do all of the work herself without a care in the world..."_

_"That was the beauty of their relationship Whiter...Though he was rich, and thus making it very possible for him to have had an army of butlers and maids serving his every whim...He never hired a single one. My parents worked together in unison to clean every square inch of our three-story abode, and as vaguely as I can recall they never once used a vacuum cleaner after I had been put to sleep at night by one of mother's soothing lullabies...I can assume they chose to do this so I would not lose sleep over the loud grinding noises that the vacuum made as it tore the dust and dirt right out of the carpets and rugs. But it was not simply the act of cleaning our mansion that defined their love..."_

_"I was able to experience things that most kids would only be able to DREAM of experiencing. I went to a normal school, for changes in the law so long ago had now prevented even the richest of children from buying their way into a fancy school...Yes, considering what I brought up before, that sounds pretty normal, doesn't it? But remember Whiter, my mother was a librarian...If she found a book related to what I was currently studying in class, she would rent it from library and bring it back home for me to read after her work day had drawn to a close. If I had trouble understanding the terms, or if both my mom and dad agreed to let her stop in the middle of cleaning, my mom would come into my room at night with a glass of warm, chocolate milk poured into a red, ceramic glass that she created herself in her spare time for me and sit beside me on my bed, shutting the windows to prevent the chilling breeze from blowing her curled hair into her face as we would read all of the books together. She would relate the tales seen in literature to events that were experienced either by herself or the many friends she had made during the course of her life, she would craft numbers and symbols out of cheese to help me learn math equations, and when it came to writing she taught me proper penmanship by delicately taking my hand and moving my fingers around so the pencil would be gripped perfectly in my grasp..."_

_"She was also a wonderful chef...She would always have fun with her culinary creations...Every time she fired up the grill, turned on the oven, or pulled out the cutting board, she would try to stray away from the norms set by chefs in every restaurant in the world. Some of my most cherished memories, Whiter, are of the times that my mother would pull out a fresh, prime-rib steak from our massive fridge and cut it into the shape of a heart before setting it flat onto the BBQ...The juices that poured from each bite, to me, represented the love that was poured into this most wonderful of meals..."_

_"My father...The man I deeply revered, didn't buy me hundreds of expensive toys as a way to say 'I love you, son'. No, he would always directly state that to me every day and night...Either before he went to work, or right as he was tucking me into bed for the night. His tone, so caring and sincere, never once planted seeds of doubt into my mind as to his true feelings for me...And every time that the two of us were able to get a day off at the same time, we would both take a ride in one of his antique cars and head down to the nearby putt-putt golf course, where we would spend an hour or so just hitting the ball around until I tired out or the place closed for the day. If it was close to dinner and we had permission from mom, the two of us would head over to the nearby Subway and share a sub-sandwich with each other, where every now and then dad would wipe the honey mustard from the left side of my lips...He always had a smile on his face as he did so, a perfect example of just how happy he was to have someone like me in his life..."_

_"Of course, there were the few occasions where all of us would go to the movies together. If there was a kiddy film I wanted to see, they would always laugh and cry when I did, and if those damn producers were stupid enough to slip some horrific imagery into what was a perfectly happy film up until that point, they would both wrap their arms around me and assure me that such things could never happen in real life. My father even said 'The world is a peaceful place, you will never have to worry, my son...' ...They did what every parent tries so hard to do...Protect me, nurture me, be there for me...I enjoyed all of the happiness that they had given to me, and I never once thought of betraying their love by flaunting my heritage to the rest of the world...Everything was so perfect...So why? Why was this perfection shattered? How could the calming embrace brought about by my parent's protection and values be lost within a single day, Whiter?"_

_"A solitary day near the end of August...Summer was coming to an end, and it was time once again for the entire Dark family to get together in a wide-open, grassy park near the southern tip of Pennsylvania for our annual family reunion. There were very few trees in the area, so we brought along some hats to protect our heads from the occasional rays of sunlight that were cast down onto us. I was the youngest of them all...The rest of the other children were in their late-teens, and thus there was no one I could talk to during my entire time there. It didn't help that I was particularly shy around these relatives of mine...My lack of interaction with them over the years probably attributed to that, now that I look back on it."_

_"So without anything to do around there, I took a kite out from the family car and played with it in the field, far away from the area where everyone was chatting with each other. And just like that Whiter, my boredom went away, blown into the horizon by the same warm, summer breeze that kept that kite afloat...You could say the string that connected to tail-end of the kite to the wood gripped in my hands represented my connection to childhood innocence, and the moment the breeze started to die down the string was pulled free from the wood...You could say, that it was a permanent end to what I wanted to be a life of eternal happiness...I dropped the wood onto the ground and ran forward to try and grab a hold of the string...But the breeze continued to move it away from my reach, until eventually the kite got stuck in the branches of a tree..."_

_"It wasn't a very tall tree...Perhaps only three times my own size, but it had many thick branches attached to it that allowed me to climb it with ease in order to go pluck my kite free from it's grasp. The very moment that I managed to fulfill my goal...THAT, Whiter, was when the sound rang it into the empty sky...'Bang!' At first I thought that perhaps one of my relatives had let off a firework prematurely, but there were no lights in the sky to indicate that I was right...Then came another bang...And another...And another...And another...Until eventually I heard screams coming from afar...Terrified, blood-curling screams overtook the bangs, but that only managed to last for a few seconds, as the bangs became the prominent noise once more..."_

_"I let go of the kite and immediately dropped onto the ground below. I rushed back as fast as I could to the area where my entire family was at...But before I was even halfway there both the screams and bangs just stopped. Not a single noise could be heard as I continue to run...My heart was racing, my mind was unnerved by those most unfamiliar of sounds...What I saw...Hahahaha...Still haunts me to this very day...Dozens upon dozens of fallen bodies...Each and every one of my relatives both close and far had been shot...A bullet right through their hearts, and the blood that poured out from their bodies spread across both the grass and cloths of the once serene picnic tables...Almost all of the victims died with their eyes blank with fear...A day that started off with the joy brought on by reuniting with such close family members...Had turned into nothing more than a tragic, blood drenched slaughter..."_

_"And...Hahaha...And...Hahahaha...And I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet Whiter! My parents...Heeheehee...My parents, who loved me with every last bit of their hearts...I trekked through the blood that was flowing through the grass, and found their fallen bodies resting right next to each other in the center of this disaster...They were killed differently though...My father...He received a bullet to both his head AND heart...And my mom, was stabbed in the heart with her favorite cutting knife...In her left hand...Was the same ceramic glass that she would always pour chocolate milk into for me...The blood that leaked from her...It did nothing to change the coloring of the glass...And guess what? You want to know...what was in that glass? Chocolate milk...That she was probably planning on bringing to me before...before...SHE WAS TAKEN FROM ME!"_

_"I LOST EVERYTHING THAT DAY WHITER! MY MOTHER, MY FATHER, EVERY SINGLE DAMN RELATIVE THAT I NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO GET TO KNOW, THEY WERE ALL KILLED! Do you...do you know? Hahahaha! I was only six at the time...I knew nothing of death up until that very moment...Having been raised to know the purity that the world had to offer...And you know what I did? I rocked my mother's body back and forth...Trying to wake her up...I did it...For what seemed to be hours...But nothing changed...I pleaded to her...Called her name as many times as I possibly could...Nothing happened...NOTHING HAPPENED! My mother...who brought me into this world and tried to instill knowledge into me in her own, fun little way...And my father, who considered me to be his greatest achievement in life at such a young age...I WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO PROPERLY THANK THEM FOR WHAT THEY DID FOR ME!"_

_"I will never be able to grow up and look out into the audience during my college graduation to see them both waving at me...Both of them showing to me how proud they are of me for getting as far as I did! I won't have anyone there to support me as I look for a job...They will never be alive to be the perfect grandparents for my children...I would never get to do anything with them again...Those were the truths that somehow came rushing into my head during that single moment Whiter...Fear, sadness, anger...Those emotions replaced my courage, cheerfulness, and kindness...And without anything left to keep my innocence intact...I broke down into tears...I wanted to be hugged...I wanted peace...I wanted everything that happened to have been nothing more than a dream...And as if my life was nothing more than a sick joke to the gods...I never awoke...For nothing had changed..."_

_"I continued to cry for hours...I was unable to call 911 for help because all the phones had been broken when the owner's bodies fell to the ground...It wasn't until much later that a helicopter came into the area...Emerging from the vehicle were two black suit wearing agents of the F.B.I...Simple policemen weren't enough to come deal with this emergency situation...After all, my father WAS a senator...An important one at that...The two men examined the area as hard as they could...They directed their attention away from me at first as they searched for clues as to who was responsible for the murder of an entire family line...Then one of them pulled out a phone from within their suit's pocket and dialed up their leader, as the other man slowly approached me...All the crying I had done had made it hard to overhear what the man with the phone was saying...But there were three parts of the conversation that I managed to pick-up that have been forever ingrained into my mind..."_

_" 'There's nothing we can do' ... 'Because of'...and... 'Whiter'...At the time, I thought nothing of those words...But they shaped the entire foundation of my vengeful motivation soon enough...The one man got off the phone and approached me. The second man recognized me as 'Senator Dark's son', and discussed with the other man as to what they should do with me. I couldn't be adopted into another family...The law forbid it...And since I had no relatives left, the only option the two of them could come up with was to drop me off at a daycare until they talked to their boss...Seeing as I didn't have much of a choice in the matter, I followed these two men back to their copter...And the entire time I sat in there until we flew off out of view, my eyes were fixated on my parent's corpses...I was incapable of crying at that point...I had run out of tears to shed..."_

_"Before I was dropped off...I had a chance to take a shower to clean the blood off of my body...I was also outfitted with new clothes...The only clothes they had on them at the time was a loose-fitting sleeveless shirt with a skull on it and a pair of jeans that needed to be belted onto me to keep them from falling off...How dare they do that to me...They clothed me...But I didn't feel any emotion in their touch as they did so...They didn't care...Hahahaha...Anyways Whiter, after I was dropped off at this daycare, they left to head back to their base...It had become morning once more, and the rest of the children were dropped off for the day by their parents...I'm sorry if I'm being vague, I remember so little about that wretched place..."_

_"I secluded myself from the rest of then, sitting at the corner of the room while thinking to myself about what had occurred...That did not last for long though, as I started to overheard two parents talking about a tragic event...I thought they meant the death of my family...But no, I was wrong...So very, very wrong...They were talking about you, Whiter...They thought it was horrible that someway, somehow, you had lost your parents to a comet striking them down...Hahahaha! They didn't give a shit that a well-respected person and his entire family was wiped out! No...NO WHITER! They only cared about a death that was unique, interesting...After all, who cares about a massacre anymore? They happen far too often anyways...Hahaha, it's not like...It's not like the senator's son was sitting in that very room...Mourning the loss of everyone that had died on that day...Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA!"_

_"And...And you know what happened then Whiter? You want to know what happened THEN? I put two and two together...Those words I heard earlier...Those three simple parts of that conversation...Those two agents couldn't do a single thing to avenge my parents...Because you existed! They didn't care...They thought the same way as those two worthless meat bags at the daycare! What happened wasn't something to investigate, after all...Hasn't it happened enough in this world already? They didn't care as to who was affected by this event...They...They only wanted to pay attention to young little WHITER, the miracle boy who is SOOO pure and tragic because he didn't get killed when the comet struck his parents down...HAHAHAHAHA, I broke at that point Whiter...My mind, forced to endure the continuous echoes of those multiple gunshots...Had cracked!"_

_"Shattered...Warped...Disassembled...It doesn't matter what term you use to describe what happened to me...I...Knew the truths of the world that day. Justice? Hahaha! If it didn't exist for me...Then it didn't exist for anyone else! There was no peace in the world, it was all a LIE my 'parents' told me because they were scared...Scared of the world around them...THEY WERE COWARDS IN THE END! That is what I had realized...My father...He never even tried to defend himself against his killer...Never once tried to save his own family...That is what I had also come to realize, Whiter...I had to get vengeance...If the F.B.I. couldn't give enough of a shit to do what is right because of you're existence...Then I would just have to kill you in order to make sure they WOULD try and avenge my family!"_

_"Yes...Yes...It all came together inside of my head...I waited until night, when the adults and pesky brats had left the area...And then I snuck onto their computer and used the internet's resources to find out where you lived...It was an easy endeavor Whiter...But that was only the START! After I printed out the info, I slipped it into my pocket and left the daycare...To begin my long travel across the continent to kill you. It took a very long time to arrive at my destination...But I never forgot my purpose. I had no map, no G.P.S...The only thing keeping me moving in the right direction were a series of signs on the road, and a few times where I would overhear some insolent people talking about their travels...The only thing I regret during my travels is that I had to sneak food away from stores and restaurants...I couldn't risk being caught...Otherwise...Hahaha, you don't want to know Whiter...It took me four long years...A few accidental detours kept me off course, obviously...But by that time I had grown into the clothes those two agents had given me...And...Well...You obviously should know the rest by that point, right?"_

And then, just like that, the explanation of Joe Dark's past had come to an end. Thanks to the Dark King's mystifying powers, Alex saw all of the events mentioned unfold right before his very eyes, the memories flowing into him one by one and leaving just as quickly as they appeared. After all this has occurred, the young boy opens his eyes and feels a little bit sorry for how Joe Dark's life had turned out, but as for his reasons for wanting to kill him..."So Whiter? Do you understand now? Are you now willing to accept your wrong doings and let me sever your soul from this world so that I can finally know peace?" The Dark King extends his left hand out, inviting Whiter over to die by his own hand. But that event does not occur. Instead, Alex slowly shakes his head back and forth, removes his right hand from the wound on his shoulder, and summons his sword back into his hand.

"Joe Dark...I'm sorry, I truly am sorry that you lost your family. No one in the world should have to see that and yet still be forced to live...But _**I**_ was not the one who killed them! Before you appeared before me, I didn't even KNOW that you existed! Your reasons for revenge are flimsy at best, and deep down you have to have realized that, right?" Alex's attempts to reach out to the insane Dark King, hoping that deep down there is still a shred of reasoning remaining within him. "Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up! I was wrong...I thought you would understand...BUT YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT MY SUFFERING!" Joe Dark screams out, lashing his head forward as his mouth begins to foam out of anger.

"Except I DO understand! You think my life has been perfect up until this point, that I have just had everything handed to me on a silver platter? I lost my parents, I had no other relatives that I could turn to! I was forced to live by myself under the watchful eye of the F.B.I...I was forced to teach myself how to survive in the world. For four years I've had no one to lullaby me to sleep, I had no one that could take me out to have fun, no one to read to me, say they love me, NOTHING! But did I give up all hope and succumb to a desire for violence? Did I lose my mind and curse God for doing this to me? No, I didn't! I dealt with my problems, a slow and steady process that took all these years for me to fully complete...But it wasn't just because of my own efforts that I overcame this ordeal! I met many friends in this world who helped me open up my feelings and give me the courage I needed to put my past behind me and look onward! Joe Dark...Be overcome by as much hatred as you feel is necessary, cast it all into your blade, and strike me as hard as you can...Until my body turns to dust, and the sun sets forever on all worlds...I will fight the good fight, and I won't let you involve the innocent people that live on this planet in your ridiculous strive for revenge!"

Joe Dark stares blank-eyed at Whiter for a few seconds, his heart palpitating while his body feels ready to faint from the sheer amount of energy he has lost in this massive bout of anger he just had. But he slowly begins to regain his composure and spits the foam out of his mouth. After a couple blinks of the eyelids, the eyes themselves have returned, and he slowly pulls his head back to burst into a bout of chilling, evil laughter. "Hahaha...Hehehe...Fwahahaha...You know what Whiter..." The ghastly aura surrounding the Dark King's blade slowly changes from dark-purple to crimson, as Alex begins to hear the sound of a pulsing, demonic heart beating deep within his eardrums. "I will take you up on that offer..." A few seconds after the heartbeat dies down, Whiter's arms are pressed against the sides of his body thanks to two, hellish chains wrapping themselves tightly around his figure to keep him from moving.

The Dark King raises his blade horizontally out in front of his body and slowly floats through the air to approach his mortal foe. "You think these will hold me in place? Even if they can, you're attack won't do any harm to me, just like all the rest!" Alex is confident as he speaks, but the words Joe Dark will say next shall shatter that confidence of his in an instant. "You would think that, wouldn't you?" The Dark King calmly says. "I know now how that protection of yours works. It's an interesting ability, in all honestly. You got fifteen souls that are taking residence in your body, seven belonging to the Inner Guardians of the Overlord's Temple, seven belonging to the Genesis Samurais, and one that belongs to the former Overlord himself. In this state that you are currently in, you can use the power of these souls to act as a form of protection. A soul is sacrificed to protect you every time you get attacked, and thus it becomes unusable until after you exit this state. Of course, the intervals between attacks where one can strike again is a little weird, and this very pattern almost confused me...ALMOST, mind you..."

"For example, if I were to hit you with my sword, but stepped back and did nothing afterwards, one soul would get used up and another one would takes it's place. But if I followed up on that sword slash by quickly drawing my weapon back and firing an energy shot at you, the same soul would still protect you from my attack. At the same time, if I were to do not just one sword slash, but a multitude of them, then my previous idea would still come into effect. Judging by the sounds I heard in my head after doing all of my attacks, I can say with absolute certainty that the first set of souls that guard you belong to the Inner Guardians, while the second belongs to the Genesis Samurais. Yes Whiter, that's right...I know another one of your abilities little secrets...For a minute after you have used up all of the Inner Guardian's souls, you are vulnerable to being attacked, which is exactly why you attacked me as recklessly as you did!"

"Now, if my calculations are correct, you can still be protected six more times before your protection completely vanishes...In the end though, I'm not willing to waste that much time dealing with all of them, seeing as that might give you enough time to facilitate a method to overcome my regenerative abilities..." Joe Dark is now standing right before Whiter, his eyes staring down with anticipation burning deeply within them. Alex, upon hearing every last detail of his Phoenix Form's protective powers being revealed right to his face by the Dark King, can now be seen with his eyes wide-open in fear, for it seems as though he is unable to break free of the chains that bind him due to how weak his left arm has now become. "You said that I should strike you down with all of my hatred Whiter? Well that is what is currently contained within my blade...Every. LAST. BIT OF IT! All of this power will be more than enough to completely devastate your protection and end your life in an instant..." The young Overlord wiggles back and forth, trying his hardest to slip through the chains before the Dark King can attack him. But the malicious lord of darkness only raises his blade above his head and let's out a quiet chuckle. "And now, as you exist before me, wishing with every last bit of your energy for someone to come save you...You will know how I felt, when no one came to save me...Now die, Whiter." Alex closes his eyes, and as the Dark King brings his blade down a yellow streak quickly moves through the air to appear right before the young Overlord. As everything fades to black, the only noise that could be heard...is a painful sounding gasp.

_Next Time: The End of the Pain_


	54. Chapter 54

**Chapter 54: Joe Dark Final: Ultimum Desperatio**

"I still feel...Warm. Shouldn't one feel cold as they die? ...What is going on here?" Alex slowly opens his eyelids to check on the situation at hand, and instead of finding Joe Dark's blade stuck inside of his body, he sees the one and only Mario floating before him, both of his hands pressed against the dull sides of the blade to keep it from advancing any further. The young Overlord lets out a quick yet surprised gasp, while Joe Dark grits his teeth and uses all of might to try and break through the plumber's grip. "How can you still be moving? I broke your spine...YOU SHOULD BE PARALYZED!" The silent treatment that Mario chooses to give the angered Dark King does little to help the current predicament. "And how could you possibly be grabbing my blade in the first place? You were too weak back then...Nothing has changed, damn it!"

Then, in a brief moment of sanity, the Dark King takes a closer look at the plumber's gloves, and notices the faint, starlit veil surrounding the both of them. The sight of this is enough to cause him to flashback to a few days ago when that wooden doll struck him with a star-based attack, and also back to a few minutes ago when that woman from the stars did the exact same thing. Remembering how much damage these attacks caused to him, Joe Dark comes to realization that it's because of the powers of the stars that the plumber is able to hold him back. But for him, being enlightened about that fact only serves to fuel his anger. "You bastard plumber! Who do you think you are to stand in my way?"

"You don't know? It's-a me, Mario!" As the veil becomes thicker in appearance, the plumber gets his game face on and begins to pour as much star energy as he can into the Dark King's blade, and with each passing second the yellow and white in his clothes begin to slowly revert back to their original colors. Joe Dark tries to pull his sword out, but it seems to be stuck in place for reasons he can't possibly hope to understand nor describe. The cape attached to Mario's back converts itself into stardust and floats over to the wound on Alex's shoulder. Within seconds the hole is sealed up, leaving no trace of the damage he once suffered at the hands of Joe Dark. As the plumber's outfit returns to it's original red and blue appearance, the lack of energy within his body causing his eyelids to shut and his hands to let go of the blade, sending him spiraling back down towards the temple below. The aura of hatred surrounding the Dark King's weapon had faded, and due to being overloaded with star energy a series of cracks form across the hardened steel before it eventually shatters into piece and fades into the darkness, this time for good.

Joe Dark stares dumbfounded for a moment at his hands, his body beginning to shake uncontrollably as the anger becomes too much to bear. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" His piercing scream accidentally causes the chains binding Whiter in place to break apart. In response to the one called Mario defying him, the Dark King thrusts his hand down below his waist with dark electricity pouring into the tips of his fingers to form several tiny orbs of energy that are all interconnected by a net that is made out of dark-blue electricity. "YOU FUCKING PLUMBER! BURN IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!" Before the Dark King can fire off his attack, Alex rushes forward and socks him one right across the jaw, the force of the blow sending the Dark King propelling through the air for a few seconds until he quickly recovers and starts to growl to himself like a mindless beast.

Not even reacting to the fact that his face was disfigured by Whiter's powerful punch, Joe Dark quickly holds his left arm out front of his body with the upper part raised into the air. Once again he draws in fear from the world around him, this time around he pulls in so much of it that he converts it all into a highly visible crimson/black bubble shaped shield around his body. As the remainder of the energy is drawn into the palm of his hand and begins to be pressed together into the shape of an orb, he stares at his mortal foe and begins to laugh madly, his voice breaking down to the point that he begins to sound more like a frightened child than the once arrogant, if somewhat insane Dark King that he was like before. "YOU SAY THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD ARE INNOCENT? THAT I DIDN'T NEED TO INVOLVE THEM IN MY VENDETTA AGAINST YOU? WELL...WELL...THAT DIDN'T STOP THEM FROM INTERFERING ANYWAYS..DID IT NOW? ...HA...HA...HAA! IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE, I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT THIS PLANET, IT'S ONLY PROVING TO BE A NUISANCE...A NUISANCE I TELL YOU! BUT THAT'S OK...ONCE I...I'LL BLOW IT ALL UP, EVERY LAST PERSON SHALL DIE, AND NO ONE WILL BE THERE TO DEFEND YOU ANYMORE, WHICH MEANS I WILL FINALLY ABLE TO BE AT PEACE ONCE I END YOUR LIFE WHITER! AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING TO STOP ME! THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO BREAK THIS BARRIER OF MINE, NOT NOW...NOT EVER!"

Refusing to believe Joe Dark's insanity-driven rambling, Alex calls forth his blade in his right and rushes at the Dark King, slamming his weapon with as much force as he possibly can into the barrier, only for his efforts to be in vain as not even a single crack appears on the surface. "HAHAHAHA! POINTLESS...POINTLESS! POINTLESS! POINTLESS! YOU FOOL...GO DIE!" Five demonic claws lash out of the barrier, causing the young Overlord to leap back to avoid the attacks of the frontal claws, then quickly swings his sword to cut the hand off of the center one, causing blood to come spewing out of the limb's flesh once he does so. This act of bleeding causes Alex to realize that unlike the energy formed limbs that were causing some problems for him during the battle thus far, the ones that have been spawned at this moment are real, possibly belonging to creatures born in the very depths of the netherworld.

Having been damaged by Whiter's attack, Joe Dark calls the limbs back into the barrier and continues to taunt his archenemy with his high-pitched laughter. "HEEHEEHEEHEEHEE! WHAT'S THE MATTER WHITER? YOU KNOW IT'S HOPELESS, DON'T YOU? BUT...BUT DON'T WORRY, I'LL FREE YOU FROM YOUR FEAR SOON ENOUGH, JUST AS SOON AS I CLEANSE THIS WORLD FROM THE REALM OF THE LIVING!" But as expected, Alex is not one to fall for these taunts, because for him they are nothing more than empty lies spat out by a madman. As the young Overlord looks down at his right hand, he feels a small amount of star energy seeping out from it into his blade, a gift left behind by his good friend Mario after his selfless sacrifice. "Mario...Even after I've acquired the powers of the Overlord, you still had to come to my aid...But in the end, I'm glad you are here for me...Because it'll be thanks to the bonds that I share with you, our friends, and the Genesis Samurais..." Alex raises his head up high and stares at Joe Dark with determination burning brightly within his eyes. He unfolds his wings, spreading their majestic glow across the darkened sky to shine through the clouds below. "That I will be able to bring this grueling battle to a well-deserved end..."

With his thoughts now thought, and his mind now clear of all doubts and other negative emotions, the young Overlord dispels his sword in a puff of flames, though this is only for a brief moment as he raises his right hand into the air and points right at the Dark King with one finger while the rest are tucked into the palm. "Joe Dark! I pity you..." "I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PITY! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING...HAHAHAHAH, MY LIFE WAS PERFECT WITHOUT YOUR EXISTENCE...WITHOUT YOUR DAMN FRIENDS SUCKING UP TO YOU JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A GOD!" "Open your goddamn eyes and look around you!" Alex screams out during the middle of Joe Dark's anger-induced rant. "I didn't strike fear into the hearts of the populace! I wasn't the one who blindly tried to kill all who stood in my way! The only one who ruined your life was yourself Joe Dark!" "YOU WOULD DARE SAY THAT? AFTER MY ENTIRE FAMILY WAS TAKEN AWAY FROM ME?" "While it is true that you lost your family, that happened via an event that was beyond your mortal control! But the things you have done after that up until this very instant, you yourself CHOSE to do them! You were given many opportunities to back down, there were signs all-around you that you were straying away from the proper path in life, but you continued forward on your quest for vengeance against me anyways! You can't pin the blame on anyone else, because there is no one else you could possibly hope TO blame!"

"GRAAAAAAAAH! SHUT UP WHITER, JUST...SHUT UP! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR PREACHY, SELF-RIGHTEOUS BULLCRAP...THE OTHER THING THAT I WILL BE GLAD FOR WHEN YOU ARE DEAD...IS THAT I WILL NEVER HAVE TO ENDURE YOUR VOICE EVER AGAIN!" Alex decides to call it quits at this point. He knew that there was no point in trying to make this mindless creature listen to what he had to say, and that it was time to put him down for good...But at the same time, there WAS one more thing he had to say to him. "Joe Dark...You call the people of this world weak, but they are stronger than you and I could ever hope to be. And I'm not measuring their strength based on sheer power alone, I'm measuring it based on that strong will of theirs that rests deep within their hearts. The many heroes who fight the good fight for the sake of their people despite the incredible odds they have to face, and the enemies of the world who try their hardest day after day to survive against these heroes despite knowing full well how unmatched they truly are...That single, defining characteristic of theirs called courage is exactly the reason why you will never break them, even IF you manage to turn this world to dust!"

"WHITER!" A loud, low-pitched growl can be heard underneath Joe Dark's voice, and in response to this Whiter merely shakes his head in a disapproving manner, then clenches his right hand into the shape of a fist and lowers it down beside his body. "You assumed that once I used a soul, it would become unusable until I exited this form...While that is true, I wouldn't exactly call it a full-truth...I can use the souls again, but the move that allows me to do so is a last resort...And I have no clue if this will have any negative impact on me once I've used it...But I have no time to be thinking about that now!" Alex bends his right arm so the fist is raised diagonally out in front of his body, then proceeds to open his eyes as his golden aura flares up around him. "O' Divine souls who have shared residence within the sacred ark that is my body, upon which you have continued your stand and act as my shield against the sins of the darkness that threaten to cleave the universe's balance in two, I now ask you in this most desperate time to be the light that guides the hopeless, the flame that burns the brightest, and the sword that cuts away the lies that are shrouding over this world! Resonate within this hand of mine, and be the harbinger of this battle's end!"

"HRAAAAAAAAAH!" Alex clenches his fist and grunts as hard as he can, as a mighty fire begins to burn around it. The texture of these flames are much different from the average color scheme you'd expect to see from them. Though there is some red and yellow, there are also green, blue, brown, silver, and icy-blue flames mixed in with them, all of them combined together to give it a multicolored, rainbow-like appearance. The flames are more bright than they are thick, and as it crackles and sizzles up and down Alex's arm, the young Overlord calls his sword back into his hand and puts a little bit of the rainbow flame energy into it to power it up. He then folds his right arm behind his back and takes aim at the Dark King, who has almost finished charging up his attack. With a quick yet powerful throw, the sword is sent spiraling towards the barrier that protects the malicious king, the weapon spinning around with so much centrifugal force that the flames take on the shape of a drill as it slams right into the dark protection.

As the tip of the blade begins to grind through the barrier to reach it's owner's desired target, Joe Dark calls forth the demonic arms from before to try and pull it out before it can do any harm. Before the limbs can even reach the blade, the simple act of tapping the flames surrounding it causes the arms to retract back a few inches before flailing around frantically and slowly disintegrating into dust. With the Dark King unable to come up with any other way to stop the blade due to most of his focus being placed on his own attack, nothing stops it from piercing right through the barrier a few seconds later and causing it to shatter like a glass window, at the same time the weapon also rams itself through Joe Dark's gut, the sheer amount of pain inflicted onto him causing the fully charged orb to collapse upon itself and vanish. Alex holds his left hand out and commands his sword to vanish in a burst of flames, then he proceeds to rush over and grab the Dark King by the neck, lifting him high into the air as the hole in his stomach gets sealed up.

Joe Dark looks down on his archenemy and starts giggling like a madman, his chilling, cold-hearted stare doing nothing more than reinforcing Whiter's view that he had become completely irredeemable. "So, you got me Whiter! Right in the palm of your hand, with that murderous intent burning deep within your eyes. So, you are going to try and kill me now?" "I'm not going to try, I WILL do it!" Alex responds in a vicious tone of voice, and Joe Dark can't help continuing to laugh. "HAHAHAHAHAH! You and me aren't so different after all Whiter...You are actually willing to take my life...But that won't be the end of it, will it? Once you have tasted blood, you'll only want to fight more...Violence begets more violence after all..." "Your mind games aren't going to work on me now, because the argument you are trying to persuade me with is flawed in more ways than one...One, I'm killing you because I have no other choice left at this point if I want to ensure everyone else's survival. Two, once you are dead, then that will be the end of it, and I won't have to fight anymore..." "Hahahaha! You really think it's that simple? That just because you will have killed me, the Dark King, that all your troubles will be at an end? The universe is a vast, relatively unknown place...There is evil waiting to strike at any time, EVEN ON THIS VERY PLANET! You condemned yourself to this fate the moment the Overlord granted you his powers! And guess what? THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE THAT!"

In response, Alex gives the Dark King a happy little smirk, with a small chuckle being the only thing heard coming from within. "I suppose you are right about that Joe Dark, I probably will have to fight evil in many shapes and forms...But no matter how many battles I fight, no matter what the odds are, I will NEVER become anything close to what you are like! Now, to address one last flaw...You say that by killing you I will have a taste of blood...Well who ever said that I would kill you in a bloody manner?" Joe Dark's eyes widen as Whiter flings him high into the air and thrusts his flaming fist into the air to release seven different colored glowing orbs from within. "First Release! The Savage Elements!"

The green orb flies quickly through the air and rams itself right into Joe Dark's back to send him flying higher into the air, the moment it does so a brief, holographic image of the Gaiden Plant appears with the orb at the tip of the fist as it's shown being thrust into the sky. The blue orb meets up with Joe Dark's body and smacks him right across the face, with a brief image of the Liquidizer Alpha appearing as the orb is shown near the tip of one of it's hoses. Next up is the silver orb, which pushes itself right through Joe Dark's chest as a brief image of the Storm Emperor using his sword to cut through his body is shown. The yellow orb attacks the Dark King right after the silver orb has vanished, an image of the Lightning Djinn using his generator as a bat of sorts briefly appearing as the attack connects. The brown and icy-blue orbs attack at the exact same time from both sides of the malicious king's body, brief images of a rocky creature with drills for arms and an icy king with a lance in the right hand appearing as this occurs. Finally, the red orb floats behind Joe Dark and summons forth seven flaming crosses that impale themselves into his body to keep him suspended in place, as a mighty dragon roars in the background. Once their onslaught has finished, the souls of the seven inner guardians return to their master's body at the exact moment that he fires off seven more orbs into the air. "Second Release! The Seven Dedicated Elements!"

The seven soul orbs surround the Dark King in a circle, and it doesn't take very long for every one of the Genesis Samurais to materialize from the orbs, each one of them carrying a different colored sword made out of hardened fire. They hold their swords up in unison, and one by one starting with Acia and ending with Zeno they rush forward and strike Joe Dark with all of their might. Every attack of theirs shatters one of the flaming crosses, the pain inflicted onto the malicious king increasing with each blow. Once the seven mighty warriors have finished, they revert back to their soul forms as Alex teleports above the Dark King's helpless body as it floats horizontally in the air. The very moment that all of the souls have returned to his body is the signal that the young Overlord needed to deliver the final attack. Alex raises his arm up high as he can while the flames spread across it from his fist. " THIS IS IT!" He exclaims. Once his arm has been completely engulfed, the young Overlord flips his body upside down and holds his right arm behind his back as he begins his charge towards Joe Dark.

"BLAZING OVERLORD..." Before the last word is uttered, time slows down for the entire world. Joe Dark weakly opens his eyes up and he watches Whiter approach him, noticing a large white orb glimmering brightly behind his body and recognizing it as the spirit of the Elemental Overlord on the first glance. He wants to say something, but finds it impossible to open his mouth. All he can do, is wait for his inevitable demise, as time resumes it's normal pace and Alex slams his flaming fist as hard as he can right into the Dark King's gut. "FIST!" As the young Overlord finishes calling out his attack, most of the rainbow flames erupt from his body to form a gargantuan phoenix head above both of their bodies that releases a mighty screech, while the remainder of the flames are forced right into Joe Dark's body.

The force of the attack causes the two warriors to start a rapid descent towards the temple below. At the speeds they are moving at friction quickly takes hold and causes a small shield of flames to form beneath their bodies that does little to reduce the pace at which they are plummeting. As such, it doesn't take long for the two of them to push through the dark clouds and start to head towards the temple roof, which has thankfully been cleared off by Rosalina. The Dark King's body tries to heal itself as the flames slowly burn apart his flesh and organs, but the damage is being caused at a much faster rate than his regenerative powers can hope to help him recover from. As the two warriors crash through the roof of the Origin Temple and head through floor after floor, Joe Dark knows that his time is almost through as the flames are now starting to tear apart his armor, and decides what his last action will be before he loses his lungs and thus his capability to speak.

"!" Indeed...His last action, as the flames melt his eyeballs to nothingness and erupt from within the confines of his open mouth, was to curse the man he had tried so hard to kill...And though his voice began to die down at the end of his scream, Alex could detect a hint of the real Dark King's voice buried within it, only it sounded like he was cursing someone else entirely...With the ground coming up soon, the amount of friction causes the flames to glow so brightly that it shrouds the two warriors in a veil of light. Then, comes the impact...

Outside the temple, Rosalina watches from within the forest, the lifeless bodies of the Genesis Samurais and unconscious bodies of the Mushroom Kingdom's great warriors resting behind her with each and every one of them covered in an energy bubble for protection's sake. She then starts to feel the ground tremble beneath her feet as she notices a pillar of rainbow colored flames emerging from the roof that pierces through the dark clouds that cover the area. But that is just the beginning. In the blink of an eye, the entire Origin Temple explodes, the burst releasing a gigantic pillar of flames that had been built up within and sending a shockwave out that cracks all of the trees that surround a mile radius area around the temple in half before sending them flying through the air while multiple bits of rocky debris come crashing down everywhere. Rosalina sets up a bigger star barrier to protect everyone just in case any stray bit of the temple comes their way. But luckily for her, that scenario does not come to pass...

The energy from the flames fuse together into a swirling disc high up into the sky, which slowly crunches together into a much smaller shape until it too bursts from the pressure and releases a powerful shockwave that spreads quickly across the entire planet and blows away every last one of the dark clouds, once again allowing the warm rays of the sun to shine down onto the citizens. All around the world the people's fears are rapidly dispelled, for they could sense that the dark times were now gone, and even though their hometowns had suffered hefty damages from the effects of the dark magic the fact that they managed to survive all of this is enough for them all to erupt into a harmonious cheer...

Back on the battlefield, a heavy cloud of smoke has descended the moment the flames have all died down. Rosalina lowers her barrier and a few smoke particles fall on top of her nose, causing her to let out an innocent little sneeze. After rubbing her nose with the sleeve of her right arm, the star Princess tries to peer through the dark grey veil, hoping to find the shadowy outline of the victor rise up off the ground. Having no luck with that method, Rosalina slowly begins to walk towards the site where the temple once stood, being careful to avoid any rubble that rests precariously beneath her line of sight. As the smoke fades away, she begins to see someone standing up off the ground, and as she tries to get closer to whoever it is someone taps her on the back, causing her to quickly turn around in shock.

Instead of a threat, she finds the elderly Professor, E. Gadd, standing below her. The two exchange a brief glance at each other, only for the professor to slowly walk past the princess while giving his swirled glasses a brief nudge. Rosalina follows him towards the center of the temple's ruins. "So, Rosalina, I presume?" E. Gadd asks. "That is who I am. I assume you are E. Gadd, the one who started this whole ordeal by telling Mario about the legend?" Rosalina quickly responds, adding her own question in at the very end of the sentence. E. Gadd nudges his glasses again and slows down his walk by a single pace. "...I am, unfortunately. I had all the right intentions, but if I had known that the Dark King himself was going to be revived along with the Elemental Overlord, then perhaps I wouldn't have said a thing to Mario...Speaking of which, are they going to be alright?" "Yes. Their wounds are repairable...But Mario, he still continues to amaze me." "How so?" E. Gadd asks. "His spine was broken by the Dark King...Yet despite that, he still forced himself onto his own two feet and rushed into the sky to save the Overlord from what would've been certain death...He couldn't take no for an answer, no matter how much I tried to reason with him. He truly deserves to be called the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom." "Indeed he does." E. Gadd remarks, letting out one of his signature laughs soon after finishing his sentence.

With nothing else to say between the two, they continue to walk forward until they are at the very center of what remains of the temple where Alex lies, his clothes having been torn, shoes burned to cinders, and face covers in ashes by the effects of his attack. He is staring down at something, the entire time unaware of the two approaching people's presence. When Rosalina and E. Gadd are only a couple feet away, the young Overlord lifts his head up and looks at them both with a weak smile on his face. "Hey...You guys are ok..." He says quietly. "Overlord, did you really do it? Is he really..." Alex points towards the direction where he was looking at and Rosalina floats over to see. All that she is able to find is the Dark King's skeleton, whose flesh, organs, skin, and pretty much EVERYTHING on him has been completely disintegrated.

That right there is enough evidence for the star Princess to confirm that the Dark King, is in fact, dead. She turns her body to face the young Overlord, grabs the sides of her dress with both hands, and extends them out as she bows her head in respect. "There isn't a single word strong enough to express my gratitude..." She says in a dignified tone. Alex's keeps a smile on his face as he turns towards Rosalina and extends his right hand out towards her. "It's alright...I just did what was right...In the end, everyone had their role to play in this victory...So please Rosalina, why don't you lift your head up, and let us shake hands as equals?" With a joyous grin on her face, Rosalina lifts her head up and moves forward to extend her own right hand out, when suddenly, Alex's hand bursts into flames similar to those he used in his final attack. The star Princess jumps back the moment that they appear, as an excruciating amount of pain suddenly surges through the young Overlord's body. "What...What is going on here?" Alex yells out, his mind heavily confused by this unexpected occurrence. Rosalina tries to contain the flames with one of her star barriers, but the magic shatters after only a second of existing. "I..I can't contain them!" Rosalina exclaims, as she panics over this situation as much as the young Overlord currently is. As the pain continues to grow worse and worse, Alex grasps his right arm with his left hand and falls to his knees, raising his head up high and letting out a blood-curling scream as the agony that the flames are bringing upon him start to become too much to bear...

_Next Time: The Final Chapter...New Birth_


	55. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: And That Shall Be His Name...**

_It has been exactly one hour since the battle with Joe Dark had been drawn to a close. As one would come to expect, there were some costs to pay for this victory today, many of which cannot be undone. The Genesis Samurais, the long-living guardians of the Elemental Overlord's legacy, sacrificed their lives and their right to pass on to Heaven in order to ensure their new master's survival. The Origin Temple, a massive temple that held many secrets about the Overlord's past life and the orb that held his powers, was destroyed thanks to the force of the impact caused by Alex Whiter's Blazing Overlord Fist. Though there is a slim chance that some of the wall paintings on the top floor could've survived due to them being the farthest away from the blast radius, one would have to be willing to scavenge through miles and miles of rubble and soot in order to have a chance of finding them in the first place. And the attack that the young Overlord used to finish the Dark King has now caused his arm to be inflicted with a dangerous side-effect, the likes of which could consume the rest of his body and cause his life to end prematurely..._

In Toad Town, the Toads themselves are beginning to work on the reconstruction of their homes and shops. Hundreds of pudgy little star-shaped creatures called Lumas have been called down and scattered around the planet by Rosalina to help the various citizens carry supplies from place to place in order to speed up production. As all the fungi people work hard to get the job done, Princess Peach walks down the center of town by herself. Choosing to walk in a slow, royal sort of way, the princess looks left and right while smiling and waving at the many citizens when they notice her passing by. "It seems as though the thoughts of malice have been cleared out of everyone's heads...Hope has returned..." A ray of sunlight peeks through the branches of a nearby tree, the glimmer caused by it passing through a couple of dew drops causing the princess to raise her left arm up beside her face to block it from sight. "And we can all sleep well tonight knowing the sun shall rise again tomorrow..."

Peach continues to think to herself as she goes through the doors of the town's hospital and approaches the front desk. "Welcome to the clinic your majesty." The Toad standing behind the counter says, bowing his head in respect to the royal figure standing before him. "Thank you." Peach says with a smile. "So...Are they here?" She asks him. "Hmm? I'm sorry princess, you are going to have to be a little more specific, we got dozens of Toads that were damaged by that Dark King guy's hocus pocus lightning storm in here..." The Toad breaks into quiet laughter for a few seconds after finishing his sentence, but when he glances at the princesses face and sees the crinkles on her forehead he can tell that she's not amused. "Cough cough...I'm sorry, I really shouldn't be joking about something like that. Very unprofessional of me and what-not..."

After apologizing the Peach, the Toad sits down on a nearby chair and types up some stuff onto the hospital computer. "Let's see here...Ah! Here we go...Room 118 through 121 are where they are all located. It's a good thing that sparkling lady got them all in here when she did, I must admit...They all looked pretty beaten up." Peach nods her head to thank the receptionist for his help and walks down the right hallway to find the room where Mario is currently residing in. She checks the signs outside the doors once she reaches the set specified by the Toad at the front desk, and finds that Mario is inside of Room 119 by himself. Mallow and Luigi are in 118, Driad is in 120, and a plasma shield covers the door to Room 121 where Alpha and Gemini are at. Peach gets ready to open her mouth and comment on the ridiculousness of that shield being up, but instead chooses to keep quiet and open the door to Mario's room instead.

When she enters, the Princess finds him sitting up in his bed with a brace wrapped around his stomach to keep his back from breaking. The plumber is staring out the window, watching as a few small white birds known as Goonies soar across the horizon in the distance. "Mario, you feeling ok?" The sudden sound of the princess' voice causes Mario to react by quickly turning his head around to look her straight in the eyes. Concerned for his well-being, Peach walks over to his bedside and takes a seat on a chair next to it, her eyes fixated on his brace at this very moment. "Mmm...I suppose that I am feeling fine...Well, as fine as you can get with a broken spine anyways...Heh." Peach looks down at the ground with a solemn look in her eyes and tries to force a chuckle of her own through her lips. "Yeah...I guess you're right...Haha..."

There is a deep silence shared between the two of them for a few seconds after Peach's comment, which is only broken once Mario lowers his head back down onto the pillow with his arms placed onto his chest as he looks at the ceiling. "Don't worry Peach, the doctor said that the damages aren't too bad…In fact, as long as I don't try and push myself any further than I did during the battle, I should be out of here within a week." "Well that's good to know..." Peach lifts her head up and gives her hero a sincere grin. "Hehe...Daisy was in here earlier." Mario says with a laugh. "Oh?" Peach flinches at the thought of her sister coming in to visit him. "Why was she here?" She asks. "Oh, don't worry, she didn't stick around long. She mistook the sign outside my room for Luigi's and entered here. Once she saw me, her face pretty much turned as red as a rose and she slunk out after quickly apologizing to me. Oh! She did have some flowers in her right hand though, I assume it was a 'Get well soon' gift for my bro."

"I bet they were daisies, knowing her and all..." After pointing out the obvious, Peach giggles for a few seconds before Mario turns his head to the side to look at her. "Actually, no. It was a bouquet of peach blossoms." Peach, it seems, didn't expect to hear that little bit of information, as she lets out a small gasp and raises her left hand up near her lower lip to better emphasize her surprise. "But yeah, at the same time she is probably mad at Luigi for being so reckless." Mario says. "What makes you say that?" Peach asks. "Because Luigi is in the room behind me...And I heard Daisy yell out 'How could you be so reckless?' to him?" Mario's attempt to copy Daisy's voice and tone leaves a lot to be desired, what with his Italian accent and all, but nonetheless Peach is able to understand what he is getting at and responds with a nod as a result. The two of them are silent again for a few more seconds, but instead of breaking the silence with words, the princess lifts her left hand up and places it on the side of Mario's face before leaning forward and giving him a light kiss on the cheek. The plumber blinks once, then twice, then four times in rapid succession as he places his own hand onto his right cheek and gently rubs it before blood rushes into them to give them an embarrassed glow. Peach smiles at Mario, he returns one back to her, after which the princess chooses to sit by her hero's side for the rest of the day, the two of them talking endlessly about the good times they've had over the years and enjoying every last second of their conversation as they do so...

While all the other heroes are resting in their designated beds, Driad has already been healed thanks to the sunlight and is currently standing up in front of his bed in his samurai state, swinging his sword around for the sake of getting some practice in. From the way he grunts and growls during each swing, it's easy to see that something is frustrating him at this moment. He stops in place for a moment and begins to breathe heavy breaths, but then he squints his eyes to focus on the nearby curtains, holding his sword by the side of his body before quickly jumping forward and cutting the fabric in half with one quick cut. As the lower half of the curtain falls to the ground, a pillar of star light appears behind Driad. Since he is currently on the edge, the flower samurai nerves are tightened to the point that he is able to instantly react to the new presence in the room and turns around to point his sword at the person's neck. To his surprise though, it's not an enemy who has just appeared, but his friend Geno, who is now back in his familiar wooden body. The star herald's reaction to the sword at his neck is to quickly raise his hands into the air to signify that he comes in peace.

"Geno?" Driad says, pausing for a few seconds before drawing his blade back into his holster and returning to his normal appearance. "Who else could it be?" Geno responds with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "I'm just surprised...What with Joe Dark destroying your body and all..." The Crayzee Dayzee turns around and walks over to the piece of curtain that rests on the ground. "Yeah, the Star Spirits managed to have enough energy left within the Star Rod to restore it." As he listens to Geno's explanation, Driad picks the cloth up off the ground, stares at it for a moment and lets out a light sigh before lifting his arms up and using his vines to tie the broken section back together with the rest of the curtain. Geno picks up on Driad's stress and walks over to place his left hand on his friend's shoulder. "There was something I needed to tell you, but I got time to listen...What's on your mind Driad?"

The living flower shrugs the star herald's hand away and slowly shakes his head while staring up at the window. "I woke up before she left...I had Rosalina tell me everything that had happened while I was unconscious. The Genesis Samurais and the inner guardians souls are all inside of Al-I mean, my new master's body...All of the other outside guardians are dead...You and I, we are the only two living, breathing protectors of the Overlord's legacy. And now that the successor has gained his powers, it is our sworn duty to protect him with our lives..." Geno steps back a bit and folds his arms in front of his chest. He had come to the hospital to tell his friend something that he would rather not have to say, but determines that now might not be the best time and instead chooses to focus on Driad's problems first.

"I know. But I wouldn't be too concerned about his safety. After all, he beat the Dark King, and with the protection the souls of fallen provide him in his Phoenix Fo-" As the doll speaks, Driad becomes increasingly pissed off by the fact that his friend doesn't seem to understand what he is going through at this time, and it eventually gets to the point that the living flower quickly spins his body around and grabs the star herald by the cloak and lifts him into the air. "SO WHAT?" He screams out. Geno is understandably freaked out by his friend's outburst, as his eyes widen and he looks ready to release a cold sweat were it not for the type of body he has preventing him from doing so.

"Don't get me wrong Geno, I KNOW that Ale-I mean, my master is strong! But what if some evil force comes along that's even stronger than him? Or what if someone is able to incapacitate him to the point that it requires someone else to beat the bad guy? What are we supposed to do then, HUH? I realized something important after that fight with Joe Dark...I'm weak Geno! After all I had to go through to make sure that my master made it as far as he did, I couldn't even do anything to the Dark King when he was in his weakest form! At 75% of his power at that! The Elemental Overlord defeated him at his strongest, and once I had finished speaking to Rosalina I came back into my room and started to refine my swordplay in order to try and get stronger...But then it dawned on me. How can I ever close the gap between us? He's a god, and I'm only a servant...There are some things in this world that one should never come to realize Geno, and yet I did so anyways...I realized just how minor I am in the grand scheme of things..."

Letting his thoughts known to his friend has calmed Driad down a bit, and upon noticing what he has done to Geno, he lowers him back onto the ground with a deep look of regret in his eyes. "...I'm sorry..." Driad stares down at the ground beside him as he speaks. "It's alright my friend." The doll has no qualms with what the flower had done, and after a few moments of silence the star herald walks over to him and places both of his hands on his shoulders. Driad lifts his head up to look his friend straight in the eyes. "Driad, you are looking at this all the wrong way. Of course, that is only if my assumption is correct here...Do you fear being useless because you think that Alex will look down on you?" The Crayzee Dayzee curls the lower part of his lip and bites down onto it as he struggles to get the one word on his mind out through his mouth.

"...Yes..." The living flower finally manages to say. "Well don't think that way. Though he may have inherited a deity's power and part of his knowledge, it doesn't mean that his personality has changed. He is still the same kind-hearted boy who you befriended a few days ago, and you and I both know that he will always appreciate the things you have done and will do for him whether you succeed or fail at them. I guess if I could provide a brief summary of what I just said...I would say that you should just try your best and not let failure slow you down." Geno folds his arms into his cape and pulls it in so it completely surrounds his body, taking one step back to give his friend some space to think for a moment.

There is something in particular that sticks out to Driad as he listened closely to what the star herald had to say. "Geno...Why are you only referring to me? Have you already gotten over you concerns in regards to protecting our new master, or is something else going on that you have yet to tell me about?" "The latter is correct." Geno quickly responds. "You see Driad...I came down here to say goodbye." The Crayzee Dayzee is quiet for a few seconds after hearing that, his eyes blank with horror as he stares into the regret filled eyes of his friend. "What? What do you mean...Goodbye?" Geno lowers his head and closes his eyes, folding his arms in front of his chest once more as he prepares to reveal what he has to say.

"You have to promise me that you won't tell anyone except Alex about this, because if someone catches even a SINGLE word of what I'm about to tell you, the consequences will be unimaginably severe. You know how the Star Spirits watch over the planet and help grant the wishes of the good people on this planet while at the same time they govern over the dreams in the Dream Depot, correct?" "Yes." Driad responds. "Well...There are some higher-ups on the chain of command than them who watch over them to make sure that they don't meddle in the affairs of the planet if it is unrelated to their duties. Apparently, they are greatly upset by the fact that the Star Spirits used their energy to power us up instead of choosing to heal the Elemental Overlord first, and because of that all seven of them are now stuck in a lockdown of sorts that'll prevent them from doing anything to the planet for about three years...Of course, seeing as I had no involvement in that decision of theirs, Eldstar was able to negotiate with the group in order to make me the new regulator of Star Haven alongside Twink until the punishment's time has passed. As such, once tomorrow comes around I will only be able to visit this planet once a month. Honestly, it's not too bad and all, seeing as I will still be able to see you guys...But I just won't be able to protect Alex in the mean time, especially considering where he'll be going..."

"Going?" Driad questions the star herald in a confused tone of voice. "Driad, you know how Alex is originally from Earth, right?" "Yes." The flower responds quickly once more. "It's his home, the place where he was born and the place where he shared fond memories with his parents before they were taken from him...And if what the Star Spirits told me is correct, it is a violent place that needs a hero to look up to. If I know Alex, he is probably thinking about going back to BE that hero...I can't really say for certain though, it's just an assumption at best." "That's not a problem. If it comes to that, I'll just follow him there." Driad says with a shrug, by the tone of his voice it's clear to Geno that his friend doesn't seem to understand the full situation.

"Driad, Earth is populated by humans and animals that are MUCH different than the ones that inhabit this world. It's also a world where flowers don't come to life and have the ability to speak proper sentences..." "I fail to see the problem there Geno." "The few humans that live in this world are able to accept the strange creatures that live around them because they themselves accept them back. You may not have a problem with the humans here Driad, but if you were to try and even walk towards the humans on Earth they would brand you a freak, capture you, and experiment on you until your body gave in and died. And chances are...You wouldn't be able to do a thing about it."

"...Are you serious? Cause if you aren't-" "Why would I lie to you?" Geno interrupts Driad with a response to which the tone it is spoken in is enough to make the living flower believe the star herald's previous comment. "So that means..." Driad's eyes widen and he quickly rushes to the door to leave the room. But before he does that, he turns around, runs over to Geno and wraps his vines around his body to give him a hug as he turns around. "I'm going to miss you Geno..." Driad says as he tries to hold back the tears made of dew drops. The star herald wraps his own arms around his friend's body and gets a warm smile on his face. "You may miss me, but I know you will never forget me. Don't worry, we will see each other again soon..." Driad pulls his body away and nods his head once, then turns around and makes a rush for the door. Before he leaves Geno's sight, he peeks his head in from the hallway with one more thing to say. "Hey...Thanks for the advice." "You're welcome Driad..." Their last conversation is brief yet sincere, and once Driad has left the area the star herald calls forth another pillar of star light to carry him back to the Star Sanctuary...

As all these events are going on in the hospital, there is one person who took part in the battle in particular who is currently being treated in E. Gadd's lab. That person is Alex, who at the moment is asleep and lying flat on his back on top of a steel bed. The professor himself approaches the workplace with some type of article of clothing grasped in his right hand. The glow of light fails to reveal just what it is he is holding until he lifts his arms up and slips it onto Alex's right hand. It is a black leather glove with a thin metal plate on the top and a thin magnetic plate on the bottom. There are two red wires attaching the metal plate to the rest of the glove, and because of the magnetic force emanating from the bottom plate, the glove is clamped tightly around the young Overlord's hand. The strength of this clamp is enough to force Alex awake due to a jolt of pain rushing through his nervous system.

Thrusting his head up off the bed, Alex raises his right hand up in front of his face and grasps the area near his palm with his left. "Gah! Ow!" After yelling out many different kinds of painful screams, the young Overlord stops and begins to pant slowly as a cold sweat starts to trickle down his forehead. He has no recollection of the last hour after that one flame had appeared on his hand, so he has no clue as to how he got back to the lab, nor does he know just why the pain brought on by the flames have gone away...All he knows, is that the professor should have the answers that he is looking for. "Professor...What did you do? The flames are gone...I can't feel them anymore..." "Oh ho ho." E. Gadd starts his response off with his signature laugh before proceeding to get closer to his workbench to grab a hold of Alex's right hand.

"I had to work quickly to make this glove here, but if you can't feel the flames anymore then I guess I did a good enough job after all!" As the Professor mumbles a few compliments to himself, Alex looks at him with his eyes showing the confusion resting deep within his soul in the process. "Professor, you are going to have to fill me in on more of the details then just that..." "Ah yes, ah yes, pardon me for getting caught up in those little old professor thoughts of mine...Ahem..." E. Gadd lets out a light cough and lets go of the young Overlord's hand to begin his explanation.

"You see, after those rainbow colored flames appeared on your hand, I was worried about them burning both Rosalina and I, so I did the only thing I could at the time...I pulled a sedative out of my lab coat and flung it right into your arm. Luckily, the needle pierced your skin and injected you with the formula, knocking you out with ease. Then Rosalina used her powers to carry your body back to the lab, and after dropping you off she took the other heroes to the hospital. Then I spent about the last hour or so building that glove you see before you now. The insides are riddled with soot you would find in a coal mine to help keep the flames at bay somewhat, and the metal and magnetic plates shut the glove up tight to prevent any rogue ones from escaping and causing harm to you or those around you."

Alex looks at the glove as E. Gadd is talking, and after the explanation is over he lifts his head up and gives the professor a quick nod to ensure him that he understands what he said before taking his left hand to the glove and giving it a powerful tug to try and pull it off, only to find that it's completely stuck in place. "Umm...One thing I have to ask you Professor." E. Gadd nudges his glasses and folds his arms behind his back. "You want to be able to remove the glove?" The professor's single attempt at trying to figure out Alex's question ends in success, to which the young Overlord responds to with another nod. "I'm just saying. If the flames are still on my hand, I should be able to use the Blazing Overlord Fist again on other enemies in the future. Just want to know if it is possible as things are now.."

"Yes. You can remove the glove...But first, you will have to set up a password. I built the glove so that the plates are voice activated. Once you say something into it, the glove will register your speech pattern and will thus respond to you and you alone. Yes, shutting off the plates will cause the magnetic force to be disabled, and all you need to do at that point is lightly pull the glove off to use that 'Blazing Whatchamacallit Fist' of yours again." Alex raises his right hand up near his face and is about ready to say something into it, when he quickly lowers it and looks at E. Gadd one more time. "A little privacy? Not being rude here, just don't want someone to come and beat the password out of you just because you so happened to overhear me say it." Respecting Alex's polite request, E. Gadd turns around and walks off. The process of inputting a password into the glove takes Alex a total of ten seconds, the words he chose to speak being unknown to everyone but himself, of course.

Once that is all taken care of, Alex calls the professor back over, for he just thought of another question to ask him. "So hey, Professor..." The young Overlord scans over the lab, noticing that not a single object appears to be damaged. "How did you get me back here without the flames damaging your inventions? Did the sedative cause them to die down or something?" E. Gadd nudges his glasses again and does his usual laugh. "Ohohohoho...Actually, I had someone helping me out in regards to bringing you back here and making the glove...I leave the rest of the boy's questions to you, o' divine Overlord." At the professor's behest, a projection of the former Overlord's spiritual orb appears in the air between both him and Alex.

"I must thank you once more for your assistance Professor Elvin Gadd. Were it not for all of your efforts, then I would not be here today...Instead, I would've been trapped in that orb, perhaps for all eternity...For that, I am forever in your debt." The Overlord's courteous comment is something that the elderly E. Gadd will never forget, as the professor bows his head in a respective manner before retreating out of sight to give the two Overlords both past and present some time to talk. "Now...What is on your mind my child? I sense a deep conflict raging within the confines of your mind, for the walls binding it all together have become twisted and small in demeanor..." Alex turns his body around so his legs are hanging off the left side of the bed, his eyes fixated on the roof above him as he thinks about what he wants to say.

"A lot of things are on my mind, I have to admit...But first things first, I want to know why those flames appeared on my hand after I used the Blazing Overlord Fist." "Ah yes...That is something to be concerned about. You took a big risk by drawing out the latent power resting within the souls inside of you after some of them had already been used for protection in your Phoenix Form. Normally, using your elemental powers in that state requires you to use a tiny bit of energy from the souls to make them stronger than they usually are...However, once a soul has been used, it's energy has been effectively, pardon the pun here, burned out. Trying to call forth more energy from all the used souls like you did for the Blazing Overlord Fist caused their energy levels to spiral out of control as they tried to draw on energy that they simply did not have anymore, and as a result they ended up pushing themselves to the point that their very 'life' force is converted into a more wild, untapped energy that is constantly streamed into your right fist after you use the attack once. So even though you defeated the Dark King and exited that form, the remaining energy that you saw appear on your right hand afterwards was on the verge of going nuclear. Were it not for my intervention, the cataclysmic blast that would've occurred could have wiped out an entire solar system...At the very least, anyways."

"...So I almost put everyone in danger just to take him out..." Alex whispers to himself as he stares at his right hand. Quickly clenching it into the shape of a fist and re-opening it a second later, the young Overlord picks up on one of the things the previous Overlord just said. "Intervention? That reminds me..." Alex twists his head around to look at the spiritual orb from over his shoulder. "What was your involvement in the events of the last hour anyways?" "Simply put, I drained the flames from your arm and trapped them within my own soul. After that, I gave the Professor every last bit of information that I could to help him with the creation of the glove." "Wait wait wait...Back up a moment there. You DRAINED the energy from my arm? So how come there are still some flames there, and even if you can answer that I would also like to know just why the hell this glove is necessary in the first place!" As he nears the end of his sentence Alex angrily raises his right arm into the air, pointing the glove right behind his back at the Overlord's metaphorically face.

"Keep your patience Alex, I was just about to explain that." The boy grits his teeth in anger, but after a few seconds he realizes how ridiculous he is acting at the moment and takes a deep breath in while attributing his impatience to the abundance of stress that he is suffering through at this time. "I'm sorry...Please continue." He says in a sincere yet apologetic tone. "Thank you." The Overlord says. "Now then...While I was able to contain the flames within my spiritual body, I can't keep a permanent hold on them. My power has been vastly weakened in this state, after all...Some of them will slip out of me and into your hand once more. Which is why we made the glove. As long as it stays on your hand, the damage to both yourself and those around you will not only be greatly minimized, but like you pointed out earlier you will also be able to take the glove off and use the Blazing Overlord Fist once more should the situation call for it. However, there is one VERY important detail that I should bring to your attention. Do not let the energy build up in your hand for too long. Should you choose to wait a year without freeing the excess power from within and then choose to use the Blazing Overlord Fist...It would be just as devastating as the energy going nuclear, perhaps even worse, I have no idea...So to make sure that doesn't happen, I suggest you go out to a wide-open field at least once a month, summon a wall made out of diamonds, and punch that to release the energy without the danger of harming anyone else."

"Once a month, don't let a year pass...Got it!" Alex exclaims while at the same time nodding his head. "Of course, I wouldn't have minded getting my hand chopped off and having it replaced with a robotic one. I mean, that would've taken care of the problem for good, right?" The young Overlord has a good laugh, but the other Overlord will be having none of that and decides to alert his successor about his ignorance. "Yes, that would've taken care of the problem...I mean, as long as you don't mind an atomic explosion taking out the entire planet once the energy is split due to your hand getting cut off, then yes...Problem solved, right?" The Overlord says in a snarky tone that seems rather unlike him to speak in. In fact, as he spoke his voiced lapsed into a more younger sounding pitch for a very brief moment.

"Erk!" Alex does a deep gulp the moment the Overlord's sentence had been finished, and nervously decides to wander away from the subject by frantically spinning his right hand around to keep the spirit pre-occupied while he comes up with something to say. Of course, it'll take more than that to distract such a wise deity. But at the same time, the Overlord knew that the boy understood what he was getting at and chooses to change the subject himself before Alex can say anything. "So...What else is on your mind?" The Overlord politely inquires. "..." Alex is silent for a moment. He thinks back to their conversation in the orb at the top of the Origin Temple, and though his mind thinks about one thing, he decides to bring up something else first. "Oh yeah...Sorry about destroying the temple." "It is alright. Though a building may fall, the knowledge and memories contained within shall never be blown away by the eternal winds of time. As long as the ruins remain where they are at, there will still be something for you to find buried among the rubble."

"Heh, it's nice to know that you are so understanding..." Alex chuckles quietly to himself a couple more times, but after that he knew that it was time to ask the more serious questions that has been bothering him since the battle had come to a close. "When I first met you in the orb, you said that because you killed the Dark King, you had ended up committing the greatest sin of all. Just what was that sin exactly?" The young Overlord thought that the previous one would hesitate in his response, but to his surprise he was quick to answer.

"I should clear this up with you...When I told you that the Dark King had been driven to madness thanks to jealousy and contempt, I had lied. The man who I respected as my equal, the man who I considered to be the closest thing I had to a real brother...It was by his own free will that he was driven insane. He looked too deeply into the Laws of the Universe, even knowing full well that it was illegal to do so, and the truth he discovered changed his perception on everything he once thought was correct. The reason he raised an army was not to target me, but to lash out against the many planets in the universe and overrun them with enough forces of darkness that the balance between good and evil would be tipped in his favor, and the power he would've gained from it would've granted him passage to Hell, where he would overthrow Satan and eventually God himself...He did all of this because he disliked the idea of someone he couldn't even see controlling the passage of time and the strings of fate that kept him tied to the realm of the living. I had to stand against him...He had no idea that his actions would've done more than disrupt the balance...It would've also torn the fabric of reality to shreds. I tried to reason with him, but his violent actions pushed me to the point that I had no choice but to kill him to make sure that we would all survive...And by preventing him from committing the great sin of changing the balance, I was the one who ended up doing the job for him. So, to restore everything to it's normal state of existence, it was agreed upon by myself and a few select others that my life would have to end, and my powers sealed away in the temple you traversed today...And you should know the rest of my tale after that."

"...I see." Alex mumbles beneath his breath. "You got your answer, yet still your mind is torn asunder? ...You have another question, don't you?" "That is correct." The young Overlord responds. "There was something Joe Dark said before I finished him off that has got me wondering...He said that there are other evil beings out there that are waiting to strike...Even on this very planet...So I have to ask. What happened to the Dark King's army after you killed him?" "That is a very good question. One that I do not quite know the full answer too if I have to be honest. I know that some were killed during the battle, the top commanders were sealed away within uninhabited planets under my command, but there is a large possibility that a few members slipped away and are still alive this very day."

"If they are alive...Then what are the chances of those not living on this planet coming here?" "Not too high, I have to admit. Only the few who managed to detect the Dark King's energy signal for the very few moment that he managed to take possession of Joe Dark's body would ever think about coming here." "Then I should stick around on Plit to make sure that none of my friends end up getting hurt...Sigh." After whispering to himself, Alex lets out a light sigh that is promptly heard by the former Overlord. "What's the matter?" He asks. "Nothing...It's just that I was kind of thinking about going back to Ear-" "NOOO!" Before Alex can finish, he hears someone crying out in his direction from afar. Turning his head to the left, he sees Driad panting heavily near the doorway out of the lab, his left arm resting on one of the nearby tables as he tries to catch his breath after all the running he did.

"Driad?" Alex says with a tone of shock as the living flower walks over to the side of his bed and places his vine made hands on his knees and lowers his head down to bow at his new master. "Please! You can't go back to Earth! I know it's your home and all...But would you actually leave all of your friends behind to go back to a place where you will have no one to relate to? ...I'm sorry if I'm sounding selfish...I just want to make sure that I will be able to protect your through thick and thin, even if I don't stand a chance against the enemies that threaten the peace of this world..." Though he is fretting over the thought of Alex leaving to go back to his world, he refuses to show his sadness in the presence of his master, and because of that the young Overlord is now even more conflicted about his decision to head back then he was before.

"...What am I to do? I mean, you got me there Driad, there wouldn't be anyone I could relate to on Earth...But at the same time, someone needs to be there to bring justice to those who wish to do harm unto others...I guess I'm just saying that partially because I don't want anyone to have to suffer after losing someone dear to them like Joe Dark did, that's all. But if I stay here, then I can defend everyone on the off-chance that a remnant of the Dark King's army ends up choosing to come to Plit to avenge their fallen master. Graaaaah!" Alex slams his fist down onto the bed, the impact denting the metal as he curses the situation that he finds himself stuck in. "I can't be in two places at the same time damn it!" As the young Overlord lets out his anger, Driad lifts his head up and notices the spirit of his old master floating in the air for a brief second before he flies back into Alex's body.

"Actually, there technically is a way for you to be on Earth while at the same time being here." The spirit's echoing voice says from within Alex's body. "...There is?" Alex hesitates to respond due to taking a moment to calm himself down. "Yes. The Overlord Cloning Process...A technique which will allow you to create a replica of yourself that you can modify in any way you please before it's given a sentient mind. I can tell you how it works, but you first must decide whether or not you want to stay here, or on Earth." "...I'll stay here." "Are you sure about that?" "Do you hear any doubt in my voice?" "...I do not. Very well then. Professor Elvin Gadd, you may come back now." On cue, the elderly professor walks back into view and snaps his fingers to turn the lights on. "Ah yes, I was wondering why it was so dark in here..." Driad comments. "It fit the mood." E. Gadd quickly responds. "So, Professor, do you still have the coordinates to the place where Alex came from?" The Overlord's spirit asks him. "Why yes, yes I do." "Get ready to input them into that teleportation gate of yours. We are going to head back there for a few minutes..."

Two minutes later, the scene transitions from E. Gadd's lab back to the place that Alex calls home on Earth. Little has changed since a week ago when the young boy set off on his journey with Mario. There is a light fog floating overhead, but even if it weren't there one would be unable to see the sun due to it hiding behind the thick white clouds above. A dimensional wormhole opens near the single tree in the area, and the young Overlord steps out of it only a second later. Though he had been gone for such a short period of time, it felt like it had been a year since he last saw this house of his. As a feeling of nostalgia rushes over him he sniffs the cold mountain air in through his nostrils and begins to whistle the tune that his mother once hummed to him as a child as he heads to the front of his house and kneels onto the ground while laying his hands out so they are floating about a foot away from the tallest blade of grass.

"Alright...I hope I can get this right the first time. Uplink process to the data boundary engaged! Transmitting genetic structure and coordinates to replicative outline now!" The palm of Alex's hands glow a bright, light-green color as a leaf-green grid outline of his body slowly forms beneath him. It takes twenty seconds for the full thing to be created, but once it has finished the young Overlord doesn't remove his hands from the top of it's stomach area because there are some aspects of this clone that he wishes to modify before he can allow it to materialize. "Ok, so let me make sure I got the details straight. I cannot make the clone shorter or taller than myself, nor can they be fatter or thinner, their brain made to hold less information than what I currently yield, and their muscular density cannot be rearranged due to the laws brought upon by the outline?"

"That is correct." The spirit of the Overlord states. "But everything else is fair game, including memories and what skills he can use, right?" "For the most part, that is indeed correct. You cannot completely copy your powers over to this new clone, for doing so would require you to split the souls within you in half, and we cannot tamper with the affairs of the undead. That is a minor issue though. At the very most, though this clone of yours will have all seven elemental forms and the Phoenix Form, he won't have the ability to use the Blazing Overlord Fist, and his strength will be cut to about half the level of your own. To make up for such an enormous gap, the clone will be able to get stronger at a much faster rate if they are diligent in their training."

"Alright, that's all I needed to know. Thank you very much for telling me that, Overlord." Alex turns his head back down to focus on the outline, then closes his eyes and begins to project his thoughts into the data boundary to tell it just what he wants modified on the clone in both appearance and skills. The Overlord leaves his successor alone for five minutes, for that is the amount of time it takes for him to finish transmitting all the information over to the clone. "Okay...So what do I do now?" Alex breathes in and out slowly, the process having drained him of some of his stamina. "All you need to do is take your hands off of the outline, and the clone will be created." Complying to the Overlord's orders, the young Overlord slowly lifts his body back up, and once he is standing straight up a flaming blue ring forms on the bottom of the outline where the sole of the shoes are and begins to move across it to give it a solidified form.

Until it reaches the upper part of the body, the clone's appearance is the same as Alex's with the brown shoes on his feet and the blue jeans on his legs. Then comes the shirt, which is a normal, grey-ish black t-shirt with a flame decal placed on the center of it. The ring finishes it's duty and vanishes a couple seconds later once it reaches the tip of the head. Just like Alex, the eyes are sapphire in appearance, but the hair is where the main difference in the head is at. The color is a lighter shade of brown than Alex's, and it looks as though parts of it have been combed forward and kept in place with hair gel to form three curves in front of the right eye, and a single, larger curl right above his nose. With his job now done, the young Overlord turns himself around and begins to head towards the portal, only to be stopped in place by the spirit of the previous Overlord. "Aren't you going to greet him when he awakes?"

"No." Alex says while shaking his head. "Though I gave him all of my memories, I made it so he thinks that he was the one who went through the journey instead of me. If he sees someone with a similar appearance to himself standing before him, it will only make things complicated. To his best of knowledge, he will think of himself as the original, not a clone. I also removed all traces of Joe Dark from his mind, for my own personal reasons...So because of that, he will have nothing clouding his mind and will thus be able to train with ease. It may take a little time, but to deal with that I decided to give him a hot-blooded sort of personality, so he'll always have plenty of motivation to fight and get stronger..."

Right before he reaches the portal, Alex turns his head around and takes one final look at his clone. "And what of his name? Is he going to share yours, or did you give him a different identity?" The Overlord asks. "I didn't give him any name. I gave the data boundary the order to come with a name on it's own. So who knows what it will end up being? Don't worry though, I'll come back to this planet on occasion and see how his efforts are going from afar if need be..." Alex looks up into the sky, and sees two human shaped shadows coming down through the fog. "We better get moving...Those two beings must have somehow detected the energy that came out of my body during the replication process." "What about the clone?" The Overlord asks. "I sense no malice coming from them, he should be fine..." And with that, Alex slinks through the portal and it vanishes without a single trace of it ever being there remaining.

The two people land on the ground next to the clone as he begins to wake up. We cannot see their appearances thanks to the light cast down by the sun making the front of their bodies get covered in shadows. "Who is this guy?" The person on the left asks. "I don't know, but I sensed a powerful source of energy coming from here...The likes of which I never felt before in my life, so I assume it must've come from him." The person on the right says, before lowering his body and placing his left hand right beside his mouth. "Hey kid! You awake there?" The clone is jerked awake by the sudden loud noise he just heard, his eyelids thrust open as he frantically swings his head back and forth in confusion. "Who What When Where Huh What?" He rambles on incoherently for a few seconds until he notices the two guys standing beside him, at which point his cheeks become red with embarrassment.

"Oh, sorry you had to hear that...Ugh..." The clone rubs the back of his head as he feels a sharp pain surging through his brain thanks to his sudden awakening. He then stands up on his own two feet and twists his neck back and forth to get the kinks out of it. "So...Who are you two supposed to be?" The clone asks the mysterious figures standing beside him. "...Oh, yeah, introductions! My name is Kai." The person on the left says. "And I am Sly." The person on the right follows suit. "Nice to meet you two...My name is..." The clone tries to think of what his name is, but it seems to have slipped his mind. He moves his hand away from the back of his head and uses it to rub his chin instead. "Umm..." He tries to draw out something, ANYTHING from his mind that he could tell the two people he just met. He senses a name buried deep within his soul, but when he tries to draw it to closer to the surface, all he manages to do is remember another name instead. "Oh! I'm sorry, I just had a bit of a hard time concentrating after I had taken a nap for as long as I did...My name is-"

"Alex." "Hmm?" Inside the warpway between Earth and Plit, the Overlord addresses his successor, who has his mind preoccupied on something else at that very moment. "So, are you feeling ok now?" He asks with a hint of concern in his voice. "Actually, I do. Joe Dark is defeated, the Genesis Samurais and Inner Guardians will be able to live their afterlife in peace with you inside of my body, all of my friends are still alive, and I have absolute confidence that my replica will be able to fulfill his duties as an Elemental Overlord no matter what trials the universe may choose to toss his way. And it's not just him I have faith in. I have faith in myself as well. Your legend may have come to a close, but mine has just begun..." "I'm glad to hear that." The Overlord says, praising his young successor for his abundant amount of confidence in himself. "It'll be a bright new day tomorrow, so let us continue to move towards the light at the end of this passage and emerge on the other side ready to take on the world together!" After a few more seconds, Alex is engulfed by the portal of light at the very end of this dimensional tunnel, taking him back to the world of Mario and friends, where his heart eagerly awaits his next adventure...

**PART 1: A FLAME REBORN.**

**THE END...**


	56. Epilogue

**Epilogue: The Apocalypse Royale**

In a realm of darkness that exists far beyond the reach of mortal eyes alone, two beings have kept their eyes focused on the entirety of the battle between the Elemental Overlord and the Dark King, each one of them providing their own views on the events as they unwound before them. Now they stare at the lifeless, skeletal body of Joe Dark through a hazy view screen that rests in the center of the room. Angered by what has just happened, the lumbering, mechanical being slams a sledgehammer down onto the crystal pillar upon which he stands, causing the magic keeping the view screen around to quiver for a few seconds before it vanishes. "That's it! The witch's plan has failed...And it's up to the two of us to strike the planet while we still have a chance!" The mechanical man speaks in a deep, angered tone of voice.

"Ehehehehe! Oh, I'm sorry, but are you trying to override my authority?" This most familiar of laughs send a chill down the man's metallic spine, and as he begins to shiver in fear he looks down to see someone he had assumed to be dead walking into the room with the hood on the back of her robe lifted up to cover most of her face as her recognizable associating walks in as well beside her. "M-M-M-Mistress Cackletta!" The machine man yells. "Quit your sniveling and bite your tongue you hunk of scrap, lest I melt it off with one well-aimed lightning bolt..." "Forgive me for my insolence..." That one sentence was enough to make the raging machine quiet down and sink back to where he once stood. The second figure, whose appearance is unknown due to the near-pitch black darkness in his part of the room, moves towards the front of his platform and looks down at Cackletta from above.

"I'm surprised to see you alive. I never knew that a witch could be so persistent~" The second person says with an underlying tone of sarcasm. "Your sarcastic remarks are most unappreciated...But yes, it wasn't too hard to fake my death. All it required was a little replication magic, a believable, nightmare-inducing seizure field, and that ignorant boy was easily fooled into thinking that he had killed the real me! All it took after that was for me to slink into the dark realm out of sight for a little while, and I was eventually able to get what I wanted..." "An amazing performance you set up for us, I must admit. It was hilarious watching those foolish samurais squirm around in fear as their lives were picked off one by one. Of course, this plan of yours better be worth it in the end, since it cost us the life of our master."

"Ehehehe! I don't give a damn about what happened to the boy, all he was in the end was another unwitting pawn that I was able to easily discard when the time was right. Our 'master' would've never regained his former strength in that body, the circumstances I set up prevented that from occurring...Besides, the boy was unworthy of wielding the untamable powers that insanity had granted him. Emotions are a weakness, which is exactly why our former 'master' is no longer with us. But we will create a new Dark King, one devoid of the ability to feel for others, a mindless destroyer that cannot be stopped..." Cackletta draws her crinkly right hand out of her robe, and in it's grasp is a single, glowing red feather that looks exactly like one of the ones seen on the wings of Alex's Phoenix Form.

"And this time around, the Elemental Overlord won't be able to stop him...Because this Dark King, shall BE him! Ehehehe...EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!" Cackletta's laughter starts off slow and quiet, but eventually she decides to revel in the magnificence of her plan and raises the volume of her eerie laugh to the point that it echoes through the the emptiness of the room. A bolt of lightning cracks down behind the two platforms nearby, revealing just who exactly is standing on them. They are two of Plit's most fearsome enemies, two beings who had been long assumed to be dead just like Cackletta. The mechanical man with the silver beard and gigantic sledgehammer is named Smithy, and the other 'person' is a sadistic jester named Dimentio who once tried to destroy all of existence. Eventually, Fawful and Smithy join the witch in laughing, while Dimentio takes his two floating hands and claps them together with a smile of ecstatic glee plastered onto his pale black and white face...

_To be continued.._

* * *

><p><em><em>**Author's Note:  
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And that my friends, is the end of Part 1 of CotE! ...Or is it? Granted, the main story is pretty much complete as it stands now, but there are still a couple reasons for me to keep this story up and not filed under "Completed."

First off, there is going to be an Extra Chapter. This chapter will detail something that has some bearing on future events, but in the end takes place after this main story has completed. There will be Extra Chapters for each part of this story, some times there will be more than one, other times they will be really short. Either way, they usually won't be posted until after the Part is complete. There will be a couple of exceptions, but that is for later on. Either way, even though Part 1's EC is complete, I'm gonna wait five days to post it, so those of you still reading this will have time to catch up.

Second off, I have a "What-if" planned for this Part. This hasn't been written yet, and since it is an alternate scenario to the events of this Part I won't be rushing the production of it. I already got another priority set right now that I'm trying to get done before April 2nd. What is that you may ask? Check back in the Mario fan-fic section three days after the Extra Chapter is posted and you'll see what it is. If all goes well Part 2 should begin somewhere between mid-April and May. This has been a nice start to the series so far, and though my visible fans are few for now I am very glad to know that I have some. So keep reading and enjoying this work of fiction, and thank you for doing so!


	57. Extra Chapter

**Flame Reborn Extra Chapter: "My Name Is..."**

It's another sunny afternoon in the Mushroom Kingdom. The birds are chirping as they fly through the clear blue skies, a light breeze blows some grains of pollen off of the blooming flowers, and the newly forming leaves on the trees are rustled by it as well. Lying atop a single, heavy branch attached to a large oak tree that rests near the serene wooden abode that belongs the famous Mario Bros. is a young boy who goes by the name of Alex Whiter. He is the current Elemental Overlord, having earned the right to use his powers after a grueling journey through lands both familiar and foreign. His adventures culminated in a climatic battle at the top of the Origin Temple against his arch nemesis Joe Dark, who had become the new Dark King after absorbing the reservoir of darkness that lied within an infinite abyss. It took the combined efforts of himself, the Elemental Overlord's loyal guardians known only as the Genesis Samurais, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi, Mallow, Geno, Alpha, Gemini, and the former outside guardian of the Nature Castle, Driad; along with the hopes and dreams of the people on the planet to finally kill the Dark King and bring the battle to an end.

Though the people of the planet were overcome with joy once they were saved from the nightmarish, magical onslaught that the malicious king had brought down onto them, victory had come with a few prices to pay. The Origin Temple had been annihilated by the blast created by Alex's Blazing Overlord Fist, the Genesis Samurais were dead, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom save for Driad and Geno were injured to the point that they've had to be hospitalized, and the Star Spirits have been forced into a state of lockdown, delegating their duties to both Geno and the young Twink until the time can come for them to resume their positions as overseers of the planet. That last detail; however, is only known by a few select people...

Five days have passed since the battle had come to it's conclusion, and as Alex stares into the sky with one arm placed against the back of his head with the other one behind used to block the sunlight from reaching his eyes, he reminisces about the events that had transpired during his entire journey. On the ground, Driad can be seen sitting inside of a clay pot filled with dirt that is placed on the porch right beside the doorway, with his vine arms retracted into his body as he whistles a happy tune while his eyes are closed. "Doo doo dododo! Doo Doo, doo doo. Da da da da da, doo doo da doo do..." It's clear that he's trying to come up with his own song, but as Alex can clearly attest to, it's missing a proper rhythm.

"Driad." Alex says as he lifts his body up and lowers his head to look directly down at the flower as he creaks his left eyelid open slightly to look at the boy. "You should try transitioning from a C Minor to an A Minor, not a B Minor into an A Major." Driad raises one of his vines out through the dirt and curls it around into the shape of a circle to thank Alex, before lowering it back down and continuing to whistle while taking the boy's advice to mind. The young Overlord shifts his eyes over to the left, looking at the green pipe with a bored expression on his face. He then lets out a sigh to portray his emotions properly before jumping out of the tree and landing right on the stairway to the porch, his delicate landing causing the board to creak ever so slightly.

"Man I'm telling you Driad, it's getting hard to find stuff to do around here while Mario is still at the hospital." Alex laments to his friend as he looks up into the sky with his arms folded in front of his chest. Driad stops whistling and opens both of his eyelids up to pay attention to his master. "Alex, Mario will be healed in two days, so try and be just a little more patient, ok?" "I'm trying Driad, I really am..." The young Overlord takes one step forward and sits down on the bottom stair step. "But he's pretty much the only person who I can do anything with at the moment. Luigi's with Daisy for the week, Mallow went back to Nimbus Land to spend time with his family, Alpha and Gemini went back to their base so they can get some of their men out to help with the repair efforts around the world, Peach is spending her time going back and forth between helping the citizens of Toad Town and visiting Mario in the hospital, and E. Gadd..."

As he brings up the name of the elderly professor who allowed this whole journey to happen in the first place, Alex suddenly thinks back to when he was on the top floor of the Origin Temple, where he saw two ancient murals off to the side with text that he lacked the capability to translate at the time. "...I wonder..." The boy mumbles to himself, which Driad just so happens to hear. "Something the matter Alex?" He questions, tilting his head to the left in order to get a better look at the expression on his master's face as he gets up on his own two feet. "Yeah, there is...I hope you don't mind if I leave for a little bit. I'm just going to head over to the ruins of the Origin Temple for a moment to see if I can find something." As he speaks to his floral companion, Alex bends his knees slightly and prepares to leap into the air to take flight.

"Err...Alex, if I must comment, I really think that you should take the warp pipe to town instead of flying there." Driad says while his head is pointed towards the sky. "Driad, it's a bright spring day, and there's a wonderful breeze flowing through the air that'll brush against my face as I travel. Plus, I want to get a good look at how everyone is doing with the repairs on the way there. So yeah, taking that into consideration, I honestly don't see why you would want me to take the quick route...Now then, I'm off!" Alex pushes his feet off the ground and is instantly propelled into the air at lightning fast speeds...Only for him to go too high and end up getting smashed in the gut by the front of a passing airplane. Driad, who witnessed that occur, continues to stare speechless into the sky for a span of ten seconds with his mouth wide-open as if he wants to say something about what just happened, only to discover that it would be pointless for him to do so due to the fact that there is no one in the area to listen to him speak, and after a quick shrug of the shoulders underneath the confines of the dirt he puts his head back into the proper position before closing his eyes and continuing to whistle an original tune to himself.

Ten minutes later, after Alex had freed himself from the cold steel of the plane and shook his head to deal with the headache he just got, he turns himself around and enjoys a peaceful, aircraft-free flight to Toad Town. As he hovers over the many towns that lie on route to his destination, he is pleased to see the citizens hard at work trying to get everything back to normal. "Hmm...Now that I think about it, I really should be down there helping them out.." He thinks to himself. As he enters Toad Town a few of the fungi populace raise their heads and wave at with their right hands, and Alex returns their greeting with a wave of his own as his face projects a happy smile down at them. "Then again, I wonder if they'd allow me to help them...They'd probably say something along the lines of 'You've already helped enough by saving our world'" As he nears E. Gadd's lab, Alex comes to a conclusion in regards to the town's repairs. "Well, I guess it wouldn't do me any harm to see if I can assist them...But first things first."

Alex lands on the ground and walks into the nearby building, as he heads down the stairs he taps the metallic part of his glove against the right wall to alert the professor of his presence before he reaches the bottom. A few seconds after making the sound, the boy hears some panicked footsteps clamoring around before they are swiftly replaced with the many sounds of glass falling onto the ground and shattering. Once Alex reaches the lab itself, he sees E. Gadd lying face first against the floor with the shards of about five beakers scattered around him as a pool made out of a strange, fizzling green liquid burns a hole into the ground.

The young boy rushes over the professor and helps him back onto his feet. E. Gadd looks over at the broken beakers and lets out a disappointed sigh. "Another batch ruined…Ho hum." The professor mumbles to himself as he uses his hands to dust his lab coat off. Once Alex has let go of him, he turns around and extends his hand out to greet him. The young boy accepts his greeting with the appropriate response, before he then focuses his attention onto the nearby lab table, where he sees beakers of many shapes and sizes that contain chemicals not commonly found on his home planet.

"Thank you for helping me up Alex." The professor's politely spoken thank you snaps Alex out of his brief train of thought and causes him to turn his head to face the professor. "Oh…Not a problem. I must apologize though; I guess my sudden appearance caused you to hastily try and get the lab in order, and-" "Ohohohoho, I am not one to rush my work even in the face of a guest's unexpected visit. As an esteemed member of the scientific community, my mind must always be as hardened as a steel wall, unmoving as a mountain, and as focused as a sharpened katana!"

A single sweat drop forms on Alex's forehead after hearing E. Gadd's rather boisterous boast. "Err…so what was with the frantic footsteps I heard earlier?" "Oh, I had simply tripped on one of my shoelaces and was struggling to regain my balance. Ohohohoho." The boy's face grimaces for a moment before his mouth opens up wide and his pupils suddenly vanish. "So that bragging of his was just an attempt to cover up a common human error?" He thinks to himself. "But really now, it's alright. I was just having a little good-natured fun with you. We all make mistakes…"

E. Gadd walks over to the table and picks up a beaker with the label "Mixture 57" placed on the front of it. "Some more disastrous than the others…" The professor whispers to himself. "So...What exactly were you trying to create anyways?" Alex asks with his eyes focused on the hole in the floor. E. Gadd turns to look at it as well while letting out an embarrassed chuckle. "I was trying to come up with a sticky compound that couldn't be removed by any means to help with the reconstruction of the town, but I suppose I added in too much Nitrogen and created acid instead." "I see..." Alex says while kneeling down to take a closer look at the bottom of the hole, where the acid still continue to burn through the solid rock resting below them. "You might want to consider dealing with that soon professor...I'm afraid I can't control acidic materials."

"Ohohoho, don't worry, this wouldn't be the first time that I have dealt with such a compound." E. Gadd quickly reaches into his lab coat and pulls out a tiny vial from one of his pockets. With a flick of the thumb the cork is unplugged from the top and caught by Alex mid-air, while the professor tips the vial over the hole to release a miniature teal drop down onto the pool of acid. The molecules in that drop fuse with the acid molecules and spread out to turn the entire mixture into water in a matter of seconds, thus averting that problem for the time being. "That's a rather interesting vial you got there Professor. How long have you had that for?" Alex asks as he tosses the cork over to E. Gadd, who catches it and places it back on top of the vial without breaking a stride. "Since the early days of my career, I suppose. I would've tried to get this stuff patented in the market, but truth be told, the creation of this material was a complete accident! In fact, there's a fun story as to how that accident occurred..."

"Not to be rude, but is it possible you could run that tale by me later?" Alex says quickly to stop E. Gadd before he begins. "Ah, I suppose you are right. Don't want to bore you youngin' with a petty old man's tale..." The professor says as he slips the vial back into his lab coat. "So now that that detour has been dealt with, I must ask...What brings you to my lab today Alex?" "Huh?" The young Overlord says, having lost track of his purpose in being there thanks to the distraction the professor's antics had provided. "Are you perhaps here to use the Stargadd to check out the Origin Temple's ruins?" E. Gadd guesses. "...Oh!" The professor's guess sparks Alex's memory, to which he responds to by coolly snapping his fingers out in front of his gut.

"Yeah, that's it! Hehehe, don't you just hate it when you forget something important?" The young boy says as he rubs the back of his head with his eyelids shut tight. "Yes, I suppose that is a rather inconvenient thing...Very well! This is some particularly good timing, I must admit. I was going to ask you to do me a favor anyways." E. Gadd walks over to the portal creating device known as the Stargadd and inputs a specific set of coordinates, causing a swirling, interdimensional vortex appears in the center of the machine. "Ok, I'll do whatever you want me to do professor." Alex says, not realizing the consequences of what he just said. Of course, E. Gadd is a nice old man, and thus wouldn't take advantage of the boy in any wrong kind of way. Instead, the elderly man reaches over to a small device shaped to look like his head and tosses it over to the boy, who catches it with a surprised look on his face.

"Eh? The iGadd?" The boy says in a tone that shows his utter confusion as to why this device was handed to him. "Yes. I upgraded it so it now has the ability to take pictures and transmit them over to me. If you manage to find anything interesting, I'd like you to use that and send the picture over to me...I'd go myself, but it seems as though a layer of sulfur has somehow formed over the landscape, and until I either find a way to clear it out or create a suit that allows me to travel through it, you are the only one who can enter the area." "Alright professor..." Alex stuffs the device into his left pant pocket and gives E. Gadd a quick nod to ensure him that his instructions were understood. "Wish me luck. If you don't hear from me in an hour...Well, I would assume that panicking would be the best option if that were to happen." The two of them share a quick laugh at Alex's lighthearted joke, but after that is done the young Overlord walks over to the portal device and leaps into the interdimensional vortex.

Just like his previous journey to the temple, Alex is sent hurtling through a series of multidimensional landscapes. The same sights are shown before his eyes, which include some massively grotesque worms swallowing entire galaxies in one bite, titans made out of cosmic radiation juggling suns in the palm of their hands, and a massive spider walk along a web made out of approximately one million planets. Like before, the young boy finds himself immensely perplexed by what he sees, as he places his left fist below his chin and tries to make sense out of something he can't ever hope to comprehend. "Is there really any purpose to this?" His murmur echoes across the expansive void as the portal of light that signals his exit from this tunnel slowly approaches him from behind.

Before he can even notice it though, the light swallows him whole and drops him off in the center of a grove of palm trees. "Huh?" Upon realizing that he has reached his desired destination, Alex blurts out that single word as he takes in the wonders of nature that rest around him. The massive cloud of fog that once obscured the heroes' line of sight is gone, instead replaced by a thin cloud of sulfur that would suffocate any normal man. Of course, with his control over the elements, Alex deals with the issue by swiftly summoning a veil of wind with a snap of the fingers. "Ok...Let's see here, I think I needed to go..." The young boy turns his body around with his finger pointed out in front of him until he sees a pathway carved out along the ground between a couple of trees. "Bingo!" He blurts out with excitement.

It takes a couple seconds to push his way through, but Alex eventually emerges on the other side of the two massive trunks and touches down on the dirt path that leads to the temple. What he sees before him is quite a change from the peaceful looking environment that he was just in earlier. Charred debris rest on the ground around him, many trees have fallen, ripped to shreds by the shockwave released by the impact of Alex's Blazing Overlord Fist. In fact, it seems that the only things that have managed to remain intact are the circular grove of palm trees that the young Overlord just left a moment ago, and the pathway in front of him that is comprised of seven sections upon which each one is based on a different element.

"Hmm...Guess all of this damage is merely collateral from the end of the battle." Alex muses to himself as he begins to trek down the pathway set before him, his eyes shifting back and forth to assess the full extent of the damage. When the boy steps on the flower covered section, he feels a faint heartbeat coming from within his body. Thinking it to be nothing more than his own organ pumping blood through his veins, he continues on his way. Once the tip of his shoes taps down onto the thin pond of water, the heartbeat's volume increases. This continues until he reaches the fifth section, a smooth patch of ground, when he starts to hear a clock ticking down slowly from afar. "What the? Wait a minute..." Alex presses his right hand against his chest. His heart is beating normally, meaning that the sound he is hearing is coming from...

"The souls trapped within me...They are reacting to the sections? But why? And where is that strange ticking noise coming from?" The young Overlord stops on top of the sixth section, a sheet of ice whose temperature exceeds that of absolute zero, and looks forward with an uneasy expression in his eyes. A warm, tenderly sensation flows through his body, as if it were telling him to continue onward without a care in the world. He also sees a translucent image of a person walking towards him, seemingly unaware of his own existence. Is it an illusion, a ghost from the past? Alex had to find out the answer, and his desire to bring about this end caused his body to move on it's own. One by one, he inches ever closer to the end of the pathway, until he steps down on the section that has two unlit bamboo torches on each side of him.

Time freezes for the very instance where the young Overlord's left foot touches down onto the ground, and during that period of motionlessness a flame is sparked onto each of the four torches. Once everything has resumed, Alex finds that the ticking noises and heartbeats have stopped, and the person who may or may not have existed has vanished without a trace. "Huh?" The young boy utters in confusion, not because everything he heard and saw had vanished, but because the landscape seems to have become slanted. His head is positioned straight, so that's not the cause of this change. The phenomenon is just beginning it seems though, as everything around Alex starts to twist and bend into the form of a spiral, and though the ground below his feet is affected by this shift in perspective, the boy himself does not budge in the slightest.

The ticking noise returns once more, though the pitch, speed and volume at which it now ticks proves to be more of an irritation this time around. But it seems as though Alex is not going to let it bother him too much, and decides to walk towards the center of the twirling spiral to try and find some answers to what is going on. However, before he can reach the end the sounds die down along with this mysterious twister, and the young Overlord is dropped off in an old yet somewhat location. He halts his advance as he hears the crackling of fire burning behind him, and the sound of footsteps tapping against the ground as well. He slowly lifts his head up, and standing before him in all of it's magnificent glory is the Origin Temple, completely reformed without any signs of damage visible on it.

"Impossible..." The young Overlord whispers to himself, his eyes gazing upon the undamaged structure in utter disbelief. Suddenly, the sound of footsteps that the boy was hearing are silenced. Having come to realize that there seems to be someone else in the area with him, Alex turns around to see just who it is. A person, cloaked in a dark brown silk cloth that reaches down to their ankles stands before him. On its feet are a pair of oak crafted monk sandals, and wrapped around the waist area is a golden rope that keeps the cloth from falling off. Before the boy can walk forward and speak to whoever that person may be, he hears a voice calling out to him in his head. "So...You are the boy who obtained his powers? Please stand still, I would like to take a look..."

Whoever the person is that is speaking into Alex's mind, they have a calm, feminine sounding voice. The person turns around slowly to get a better look at the young boy. Even though the two of them are now looking at each other, the only part of this mysterious figure's face that Alex can see are the glossy, ruby lips, seeing as the rest of it is obscured by the shadow cast down by the combination of her hood and the light of the torches behind her. Her fingernails are covered by a bright, silver polish, but the rest of her arms are covered by the cloth. "Tee-hee...I can see the similarities. The aura that radiates from the confines of your soul, it tells me that I can trust you..." The person continues to speak in the young Overlord's mind, though as she does she curls her lips to give him a tender smile.

"This person...Could she be?" Alex thinks back to the words spoken to him and his friends while they were in the Terra Cave, about how someone in a robe traveled with the Overlord...Two-thousand years ago. "I'm in the past...Everything adds up. The rebuilt temple, this lady wearing...Well, I guess it's more a cloak than a robe, but I guess I could attribute that simple mistake of his to the fact that he probably couldn't remember events that had transpired so long ago...But the question remains...How did I end up here?" As the young Overlord comes to this sudden revelation of his, the lady standing before him holds her right arm out in front of her body. "It seems that you are unaware of the full truth. I got a few minutes to spare, so I can provide you with some answers...But before I can do that..."

With a swing of the arm to the side of her hip, she calls forth a sword into her hand in a flash of light while at the same time raising her other hand up to her chest and calling forth a circular shield with a variety of runes on the outer circle and a diamond heart in the center with laces on the back that wrap around the area below her wrist to keep the guard in place. The lady releases the grip on her sword and uses her fingers to spin it around so she can hold it tightly in a backhanded manner. She lurches forward slightly and moves her arm behind her back while positioning the shield so the upper part of it covers her chin and the lower part covers her chest section. A glimmer of light sparkles from her right sleeve and only a second later are the two of them trapped within a massive dome made out of a swirling mixture of multicolored light.

"Forgive me for doing that which you may deem to be treason o' mighty lord of the elements, but there is something that I must see for myself before I can tell you anything..." The lady now speaks through her mouth instead of her mind, and her tone is rather apologetic as she speaks. Sensing a great deal of hostility along with a substantially high concentration of power coming from the cloaked figure, Alex calls forth his flaming sword into the grasp of his right hand and moves his fingers towards the yellow trigger on the handle. "Shoot the Furious Lightning! Trigger: Electr-" Before all the words can slip through his lips, the lady rushes forward and spin kicks him right in the jaw with such agility that Alex didn't even have any time to blink. The impact of the attack catapults the boy through the air and slams him back first into the dome, with his head recoiling back to hit it as well only a moment later.

While the young Overlord spends time trying to free himself from the dome, the lady leaps into the air with her sword held back near the side of her face ready to strike. With very little time to free his whole body, Alex pulls his right arm out and holds the dull side of his weapon out in front of his neck horizontally to block what would have been the killing blow. The lady pulls her sword back, raises her left knee into the air, and smashes it right into Alex's gut. The amount of force put into the attack almost causes the boy to cough up blood and also forces him to pull his sword away to prevent his neck from being cut when the upper part of his body is forced forward. As he quickly regains consciousness Alex sees that the lady has his back turned towards him with her sword held over her shoulder in such a way that the tip is only centimeters away from touching the skin on the right side of his neck.

Instead of cutting him then and there, the lady does a 360 degree spin to try and slice Alex's head clean off. That very brief period where she didn't attack manages to provide the young Overlord with just enough time to rip himself right off of the wall of the dome and duck out of the way of the attack. While all this is happening, thoughts of all sorts are rushing through Alex's mind. "I got to counterattack, but is it really wise for me to hit a girl? No...Can't hesitate here, she's out to kill after all." The boy's eyes widen as he remembers something crucial about his opponent. "Ah shit, she can read my mind!" Right when he thinks that, the lady punches him right across the face with her shield, sending his body spiraling into the ground with such force that a mountain of dust rises into the air and a crater as deep as he is tall is formed.

The young boy pushes himself up with his left hand and lifts his head up to pay attention to his opponent, only to find that his vision has been blurred thanks to a combination of the damage he has taken and cloud of dust that's floating before him. He does, however, not only notice the lady's shadow plummeting towards him, but also sees that his weapon has been dislodged from his grip and is stuck in the ground a few feet away from him. With only moments away until impact, Alex frantically tries to come up with a plan of attack. "Maybe..." He murmurs in a moment of inspiration upon looking at the cloud which blocks most of his view. Waving his right hand towards the lady, the dust is sent flying in her general direction.

While she spends time in the cloud trying to find her way out, Alex pushes himself up off the ground with both hands and presses his feet against the ground to get a running start towards his sword. As he moves he lifts his head up and sees the lady bursting through the cloud towards him and quickly lowers his right hand to grab his weapon and pull it out before leaping forward and rolling over the cracks in the crater to get out of the way as his opponent impales the ground with the tip of her blade, causing the crater to split in half down the middle and sending chunks of rock hurtling into the air due to the pressure underneath the plate being released all at once. Alex is barely able to hang on to the edge of one of those rocks as he tries to lift himself up onto it, but once he does he positions his legs to keep himself steady as he places his fingers near the red trigger.

"Ok, let's try something different! Rend the Searing Fire! Trigger: Flame Samurai!" With a single confident pull of the trigger, Alex's body bursts into flames. The boy swings a silver katana from beyond the burning blaze, blowing the fires away and leaving him standing on the now melting rock in a red samurai's garb with his hair and eyes now crimson in color and his newly formed katana's handle gripped tightly in the palm of his hand. Once his transformation has ended, he looks down below his feet to see the lady rebounding off of the rocks with her movement between each one being as quick as a flash of lightning and the chunks of earth breaking into dust particles the moment her feet touch them.

When she's in range, she leaps off one more rock and spins through the air with her shield held beside her body and the sword above the head. Alex holds his sword out in such a way that he not only manages to stop the blade before it can cut him, but also halts the momentum built up by the lady's spinning. Though the young Overlord has powered up, he knows that he hasn't fully closed the gap between the two of them quite yet, but for the time being he lets out a relieved sigh over the fact that he will finally be able to launch a counterattack. However, while he is busy catching his breath, the lady removes her weapon from the battlefield with a flash of light and covers the palm of her hands with a rainbow-colored veil as she places both of them right on the flaming sword and uses it to vault over the boy's body and land elegantly on a rock behind him, only to leap off it a second later towards the wall of the dome right before it smashes into the ceiling.

The lady calls forth her sword and stabs it right into the light, using it to grind down the side of the dome towards the bottom while keeping her eyes focused on Alex as he nears the top. The young Overlord lifts his head up, and upon seeing the ceiling approaching he back flips into the air, presses his feet against the top of the dome, and uses it to propel himself towards his opponent at rocket fast speeds with his katana held near his hip. Once he is in range, Alex makes a slash aimed at the lady's arm, only for her to swing herself over the attack by swaying the weight of her body to the left. She uses the momentum gained from the swing to launch herself into the air before swirling her right hand around above her head to drag in energy from the dome into the form of an aurora colored orb that she swiftly flings at the boy.

Since his guard hasn't been lowered yet, Alex is able to calmly lift his head up and swing his left hand across the front of his face to summon forth a thin veil of flames that proves efficient in blocking the incoming sphere. It doesn't, however, do anything to stop the blinding explosion that occurs upon impact. While he is distracted, the lady drops down and slams her knee right square into the center of Alex's face before floating back and pulling her weapon out of the dome and spinning it around with one hand to deliver one powerful slash right across the chest plate of his armor. The steel of the blade is strong enough to cut right through it and hit the skin beneath at the same time, but seeing as though the cut wasn't deep, only a little blood leaks out from the flesh.

Before the young Overlord is given and opportunity to fight back, the lady pushes him back with a quick jab from her shield, floats a little higher into the air, and delivers a powerful roundhouse kick to the neck that sends him catapulting down into the ground like a meteor, raising yet another cloud of dust upon impact. The lady, wanting to make sure that her opponent is still alive, then proceeds to float down towards him. From beyond the light brown fading cloud she can make out two glowing red and orange orbs suspended in mid-air. Though she can only take a guess as to what is the cause of those heat producing sphere's sudden appearance, it only takes a gust of wind created by a single flap of a pair of crimson, feathered wings to reveal just where they are coming from.

On the ground, standing in a cracked patch of land created by his impact, is Alex in his Phoenix Form. The flaming orbs placed in the front of his palms grow bigger with every second, and as the lady looks on she suddenly finds herself remembering the attack in question. "That stance...That form..." Embracing herself for the worst, the lady holds her shield up in front of her body while slipping her right fingers into her opposite sleeve towards a bracelet wrapped around her wrist. "Eat this!" Alex exclaims while thrusting his arms out in front of his body and placing the bottom of the palms against each other to fuse the orbs together before a massive beam of flames emerges from within it. "FLAME CANNON!" He calls out as it's fired.

The beam flies through the air and quickly hits it's target, causing a fiery explosion upon impact that's roughly eleven times the size of her body. Satisfied with the success of his attack, Alex turns his body sideways with his head pointed towards the cloud of smoke that's formed from the blast. "Whether your intentions are good or impure, even if you are a woman or a man, I will not hold back against you!" The young Overlord proclaims with vigor as he points one finger up into the sky. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. Especially now that you've given me a reason to go beyond the limits of my normal state of being..." Those words, uttered by the lady that rests in the air far beyond Alex's current reach, signal the beginning of her power raising to a whole new level the likes of which the he had never felt before.

"Contracted to my service for use in my hour of need, scarred onto the steel of my blade is your unwavering creed. A storm unleashed before the night has come is your light that rips apart the northern skies, you gaze upon the sins of evil and pierce them with your glowing eyes. On this day upon which you hear me call your name is the moment that I shall choose to deliver the verdict soon, so come forth and seal my victory, AEGIS DRAGOON!" On the very moment that the creed has been finished, multiple rays of light break apart the smoke until there is nothing left to cover the cloaked lady. As Alex stares wide-eyed into the air, he sees that an unidentifiable creature made of pure white hardened light has appeared behind his opponent. The wings of the beast flap at a steady pace, as the thin dragon-like head attached to a long, rounded neck hangs high above the lady's with its focus placed on the young Overlord. Both of the creature's claws grasp themselves around the lady's own hands, but from the stomach downward there is no body to be seen.

A powerful gale has risen on the battlefield thanks to the might of the light beast's wings. The winds that have been churned up blow back the lady's hood, revealing to the young Overlord the full glory of her face's appearance. Her hairstyle is that of a bowl cut, the color of which being a glossy aqua-teal mixture. There is a single, light-pink comma shaped bang hanging above her forehead whose point is directed towards the right side of her face. Her glistening sky blue eyes keep their attention focused on the boy that stands below them, who at the moment is looking ready to retreat as he takes a few nervous steps back. It takes the boy a second to remember the special ability that's granted to him in this form before he stands his ground and points his sword into the air. "No matter how strong you may become, I will keep the fight going until I draw my last breath!"

Impressed by the young Overlord's courage, the lady giggles to herself while her shield up in front of her lips to hide her emotions from him. "That's what I wanted to hear..." Upon lowering her arm, her expression becomes quite serious, and in an instant she appears on the ground right in front of Alex to jab him in the chest with her shield. To her surprise, instead of him being knocked back by the attack, a green shockwave emerges from the young Overlord's body, and she finds herself hearing a primal sounding roar from afar. It only takes her a quick blink of the eyelids to recognize the noise and at the same time pinpoint just where it is coming from. "Oh, I see why you are as confident as you are...Let me fix that post-haste!"

The lady jumps back as Alex lowers his head with one of his eyebrows raised out of curiosity. Thinking he can strike before she attacks again, the young Overlord grasps the handle of his sword with both hands and raises it high above his head. The blade of the lady's weapon glows bright as it is infused with power from the beast on her back, and once the shine radiating from it has grown enough in strength she does a curved slash in front of her body that cleaves the ground below her and sends out a wide crescent beam that runs right through Alex's body and eventually the air itself, leaving an oval shaped portal of light behind him once the attack itself has faded away. The green shockwave still protects the boy from harm, but the noise that emerges makes it sound like the beast who made it is in pain, and it takes only a second later for the guard to be split in half and slowly fade away from view. As he lets out a low-pitched stutter that shows his disbelief in regards to what just happened, Alex swears that he could've heard a familiar, female scream mixed in with the beast's pained moan.

The young Overlord looks over at the lady as she holds her shield up in front of her chest and wields her sword backhanded behind her shoulders with the light beast mimicking her movements perfectly. From the way her lips are moving, Alex makes out that she is whispering the words "Forgive me" just in time for her to dash out towards him. The boy raises his sword in preparation to block the incoming attacker, only for her body to briefly split into three afterimages that vanish all at once, leaving behind a stream of air that is strong enough to push Alex back a few inches. He turns his head to glance over his shoulder and sees the stream's trail end at the portal. Though the lady has left his line of sight, she kept a present behind for her young opponent. A wave of cascading light erupts from below his feet that sends him flying into the air, the attack being an aftereffect of the lady dragging her sword along the ground as she passed him by just a moment ago.

Once he is spinning around against his will above the ground, the lady quickly sprints out the portal of light and charges right through Alex's body with her sword held in both hands below her chest with the light beast violently flapping its wings as they move across the air. Their combined might not only breaks the blue shockwave that tries its best to guard its master, but it also sends the young Overlord higher up into the air, and after it has vanished Alex hears a robot short circuiting and yet another female voice screaming out in pain. Before he can react any further, the lady slips into another portal of light and reemerges from it facing in another direction to repeat the process all over again. The boy feels a sense of helplessness as the lady easily breaks each and every one of his protections until only the Fire one remains.

When the moment comes for the final strike of this continuous onslaught to occur, Alex is able to catch a glimpse of his opponent somersaulting out of one more portal of light until she is positioned right above his body. At that point she emerges from her curled up state with her sword held high above her body and delivers one last slash that carves the red shockwave in half and spikes the young Overlord right into the ground once more. This time however, the lady wises up to her previous errors and with a quick snap of the fingers Alex's wings and clothes are nailed to the ground by a multitude of giant crosses of light. The pain that rushes through his nerve endings alerts the young Overlord that he is now completely vulnerable, and on top of that he can feel that the energy of the fourteen souls that dwell within his body have diminished and that they themselves must now rest. The question remains in his mind though as to whether or not he will even be able to live to allow them to heal, as it seems the situation has grown quite grim for him.

"Grr..." He grunts as he tries to pull his arms and legs free from the objects that bind him in place. "Damn it...I can't move! But I refuse to accept this as the end..." As he thinks of a solution to this problem of his, his eyes shift to focus on the crosses, then the lady as she floats precariously in the air above him, and finally over to the glove on his right hand. Suddenly, an idea sparks in that panicking mind of his, the emotion that his eyes show as he comes up with it not failing to escape the lady's looming glance. "I expected more from you honestly. I guess in the end you weren't worthy of wielding his powers. I shall put you out of your misery with this last blow..." As she talks her final attack is already being prepared. The beast lets out an echoing roar, causing four circular spell casting runes to appear between both its master and her target. The lady rises higher into the air to make sure that her following attack will have enough strength put into it.

As Alex witnesses these events happen, he looks over at his glove and tightens his muscles while gritting his teeth together. "Not much time left...Got to make this plan of mine count!" Using all of his might, the young Overlord tries to break his right arm free from his bindings. It doesn't take long for him to hear the sound of the fabric of his shirt's sleeve tearing apart at the seams. Of course, it was rather hard for him at first to hear that sound when the lady is busy yelling out the name of her final attack above him. "Take this! Queen's Checkmate: Revolt of the Borealis!" The lady grabs onto the handle of her sword with both hands and places it near her chest like she did earlier during her assault against Alex's soul shields. She then turns her body upside-down and begins to dive-bomb down towards the young Overlord.

As she passes through the center of each rune, they are absorbed into her body and cause her to be covered with a layer of light. Before she begins her descent though, Alex rips his arm free from the crosses and places the pointer finger part of his glove near his mouth and bites down onto the tip of it to start tearing it apart. "A small cost, that can be fixed later...Assuming I live!" He thinks to himself in regards to the damage done to his clothing. As the lady passes through the first rune, Alex manages to rip off a small part of the glove's material, which he then proceeds to spit out off to the side as a small rainbow colored flame leaks out from within. With his opponent only two runes away from him, the young Overlord knows what he must do.

He takes his right hand and moves the fingers around so the thumb is held up, and the pointer finger is aimed at the lady while the rest are curled into the palm. "I won't die here! OVERLORD TRIGGER!" Upon shouting the move's name, Alex lowers his thumb, and a beam that's about as big as his head is fired straight into the air. The two attacking forces collide in between the third and fourth runes, but at first it seems as though the beam is doing little to halt the lady's advance as she comes ever closer to the last rune. The collision causes a massive shockwave the splits the crosses in half and send the upper halves flying all-around, with most of them slamming into the roof of the dome and causing it to crack slightly before they vanish.

But as time slowly ticks away, the lady finds herself being slowed down by the young Overlord's attack to the point that once she passes through the fourth rune and her body becomes pure light, she is pushing forward at a rather meager pace. Seeing the boy's determination shining through during his most crucial hour does not anger her though, instead it brings a warm smile to her face. "What drives you to continue this fight even though you are outmatched?" She asks in a friendly tone. Alex can be seen panting from below, as he has almost lost the strength necessary to keep the beam going. In spite of that, he has the answer to her question all ready to go. "It's my duty...As an Overlord...To have the strength...To defeat anyone...Who stands against me...If I cannot accomplish that...Then who will protect the ones I care for?"

For a brief moment Alex's strength is renewed, and with a powerful roar of his own he unleashes one final burst of energy from the tip of his finger that causes the beam's size to grow exponentially. It becomes so big, in fact, that it manages to not only spread itself around the lady's light covered body, but it also rises into the air and slams itself into the top of the dome where it then spreads across a total circumference area of approximately twenty feet. It takes twelve seconds for the flames to die down, but when they do, Alex is now physically and mentally exhausted, while the only harm that has been done to the lady is that her protective veil of light and the beast that floated behind her are now gone. The young Overlord lowers his hand down besides his body and does some heavy breathing with his eyelids closed slightly. The lady spins her body around and floats downward while waving her shield arm to dispel the lower halves of the crosses. As the bindings break apart piece by piece, the lady lands knee first onto Alex's stomach with her shield pressed against his chest and her sword held in such a way that the tip is pointing right at the boy's forehead. From her expression it looks as though she is ready and willing to deliver the finishing blow without hesitation...

Except that moment never comes to pass. Instead, the lady looks down upon the boy's tired face and gives him a tender smile as she makes her shield vanish in a flash of light while at the same time converting her sword into light that swirls together into a spherical shape in the palm of her hand. Naturally, these actions confuse the hell out of Alex, who can only weakly say "Huh?" with the amount of stamina he has currently. The lady presses her right hand down against the young Overlord's chest, and the orb of light is absorbed into his body. As she slowly gets back up on her feet, turns around, and walks a few feet away from him, Alex finds his energy being rejuvenated by whatever it is that the lady placed inside of him.

Slowly but surely he finds himself breathing at a normal pace in a matter of seconds, as the wounds inflicted upon him have healed up, and his shirt and gloves have been repaired. "What the..." The boy mumbles to himself as he uses his arms to push himself up off the ground to look at the one who he was fighting just a moment ago. "Why did you heal me? I sensed a killer intent coming from you..." The lady raises her left hand and presses her thumb, middle and index fingers together. "I was ready to go through with it too, but as it turns out, you managed to pass my test." With a snap of the fingers the dome vanishes without a trace, and as he rises onto his feet and dusts the back of his pants off with a wave of his hands, Alex can't help be wonder just what the lady could be referring to.

"Test? What the hell could you possibly have been testing me for that you had to almost kill me?" He asks in an outraged sounding tone. "I just had to make sure that you were deserving of the Overlord's powers. You got some ways to go, but I suppose I can attribute that to...Err, wait a second." The lady turns around with a red tint in her cheeks as she giggles nervously to herself. "I really should've asked this before we started...But just how long have you had those powers for?" "Not even a week. Why?" Alex responds rather quickly. The lady's expression does little to hide the look of surprise buried deep within her eyes, as she spends a few moments thinking to herself before coming up with an answer that should quell the boy's curiosity.

"Well, judging by how you performed during the battle, it seemed as though you had no clue as to what any of your form's weaknesses were. I would like to assure you right here and now that even though I came at you like I did, I had no intention of ever going through with killing you." Though she speaks in an apologetic tone, the young Overlord finds himself unable to buy it. "Alright, so if that's the case, then why did you try and come off as an antagonistic sort of person?" He asks. "Simply put, I was pushing you to your limits. After all, when I forced you into that life-or-death scenario at the end and you felt your adrenaline start to pump, did you or did you not come up with a timely solution to your situation?"

"I...Well..." Alex thinks about that question for a moment, and comes to the conclusion that the lady does have a point to what she is saying. "Ok, I guess I see what you were trying to do there. Correct me if I'm wrong, ok?" The lady responds with a simple nod. "Basically, you were trying to show me that there are evil forces out there who won't give me a free opportunity to switch between forms, that some of them have the capability within them to break the soul shields in my Phoenix Form, and that I need to be able to stay focused, think fast, and never lose faith in myself even when the scenario becomes as grim as it can get. Does that sound about right?" Having found his answer to be satisfying enough, the lady slowly claps her hands together with her eyelids closed and her lips curled into an overjoyed grin. "Yep! You got it!" She says in glee.

"Ok, I'll keep all that in mind for later battles, thank you for showing me that...By trying to kill me." At first Alex is hesitant to say that last part, but when he does he adds a single nervous laugh to the end of his sentence. "Hey, if I had known that the Gaia Temporis was going to drop you off at this specific time and place I would've come up with a better idea, but as it stood I pretty much had to do some improv." The lady says with a shrug of the shoulders. "Wait, what?" The young Overlord blurts out with a wide-eyed expression upon hearing the name of the object uttered at the start of the woman's sentence. "Gaia Temporis? What is that?" "The Gaia Temporis, or Time Stone for short, is an mystical object that allows one to manipulate the time-space continuum to a certain extent. Freeze time, travel through it, rewrite it...It all depends on the will of the user. The Elemental Overlord had it in his possession until he sealed his powers away on this night, but I have no clue as to where in the Origin Temple he buried it. From what I can assume, in the present day where you are from the stone reacted to your powers as you entered the ruins and sent you back to this particular period in time to see me."

"Wait a minute, how do you know that the temple will be in ruins in the future?" Alex comments, finding it suspicious that this lady would know such information. "Do you really need to ask that question, Alex Whiter?" The lady says with a tilt of her head and an innocent smile on her face. With each question answered, the young Overlord finds himself moving farther and farther away from closure to this situation. This lady, who is becoming more and more of an enigma with each passing second despite all that she has revealed about herself, is so open in regards to what he himself has to say, that there is only one thing left for him to do at this point before he can press on any further. "You can see the future, you can project and read thoughts, you know so much about the Elemental Overlord and are apparently a capable enough fighter in your own right, so I have to say...Lady, just who are you?"

Seeing as though the young boy is feeling left in the dark about her identity, the lady is compliant to answer this final question of his. She takes her left hand and rests it flat on top of her chest while staring deep into Alex's befuddled eyes. "For what I made you suffer through, I suppose it is alright for me to reveal this. After all, there is a chance we might meet again in the future, tee-hee. My name is-" The young Overlord can barely hide his anticipation as the lady prepares to reveal her name. In fact, he is so excited, that is feels as though time is slowly grinding to a halt around him. Unfortunately for him, this effect isn't being caused by his head playing tricks on him. Just like when he was sent to this era in the present, the area around begins to twist and turn into a spiral as a loud ticking nears rings through the boy's eardrums.

"No! I'm not ready to go back yet!" Alex screams out while extending his right arm to try and grab a hold of something that will keep him suspended in this time period long enough to hear the lady say her name. As he wiggles his fingers back and forth, he slowly begins to realize the futility of his struggles, and right when the swirling vortex has dropped him off right in front of the ruins to the Origin Temple does he pull his arm back to the side of his body with a saddened look in his eyes. Now alone in the center of this sulfur covered landscape, Alex reverts back to his normal state of being and looks out into the horizon, his mind continuing to think about the lady he had the honor of meeting. "She said we might meet again...Which has to mean that she could still be alive today! But where could she be? And how would she have been able to live this long? ...I came to this place looking for answers..." The young Overlord turns his body around and gazes upon the many pieces of rubble that rest within the ruins. "And I may have just stumbled across a mystery that I may never be able to solve..."

**Flame Reborn Extra Chapter: "My Name Is..."**

**THE END!**

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<br>**

Gah! I just realized a couple days ago that I forgot to say something really, REALLY important about a certain chapter of Part 1.

First off, you may or not have heard this recently, but the famed Alvin-Earthworm has just declared that he is done with Super Mario Bros. Z. Anyone familiar with that series, or at the very least the intro to it may have noticed upon reading Chapter 46/47 that I had the Star Spirits use their energy to power-up Mario and the rest of the group. I will say this right now before any accusations are made. I give Alvin full credit for the idea, up to and including the designs of Zeo Mario and Zeo Luigi. It is quite sad to see such a great creator give up on a project before it reaches its end, but Alvin gave perfectly good reasons for doing so and I both admire and respect him along with wishing him luck in his future endeavors. That being said, I also consider the man to be one of my three inspirations for making CotE in the first place. And Part 1 won't be the only chapter where I will borrow/shout-out to an idea of his from SMBZ. You'll see early on in Part 2 what I mean by that, and it should be easy to figure out thanks to the Epilogue.

So yes, while I used the Star Spirit power-up thing, I refuse to claim that it was my idea whatsoever. I'm not a fool, and though I won't state it until the end of a part instead of the chapter it appears in I will give credit to whatever ideas I borrowed from other works of fan-created fiction. Either way, just had to get that all of my chest, and with that out of the way...

See you all in three days for the first part of the first CotE "Movie":** Rebirth of Subspace**!


	58. What If Story: Demise Under the Stars

"_How many stars are there in the sky? No mortal who has ever stood atop the mortal plane has ever counted them all, because for ever planet there are millions of them out there waiting to fill the night skies. Are they beacons of hope, or callers of destruction? Each of their purposes are mysterious, but yet you can't help but be intoxicated by their beauty as you look up at them. Heh…I'm getting off-track here, aren't I? You didn't come here asking for a lecture on the beauty of the stars, but at the same time this story relates to the possibilities bound to those very celestial phenomena and the multiple timelines of which they intertwine with. After all, the fragile human mind is always drawn to one ideal when they read a story, and that is 'What-if'?"_

"_What-if the hero made this decision sooner? What if the villain realized his mistake and acted against it? What-if the hot-blooded leader did not meet his fated end? There are far too many possibilities to think about, and covering each one is impossible, for with all the options come differing orders of which they can be spoken in. It is a daunting task, and not all of us can be gifted or cursed with immortality. So to you, my fellow viewer, I will share with you one tale, one that has been spoken of before but a possibility from it that has yet to be seen. It'll be one of the simpler branches to cover, for all it requires is one shift in the continuum for things to unfold…Now lay back, and close your eyes to imagine the events as the words are spoken melodiously into your eardrums…"_

**Clash of the Elements What-If Scenario (Part 1):**

**Demise Under the Stars**

The end was drawing closer for planet Plit. The urgency was felt in the air as the boy Joe Dark, who took in the power and spirit of the Dark King into his body, was preparing an attack that would surely mark the end of his long-desired target of malice, the new Elemental Overlord Alex Whiter. The reasons for his grudge were unknown to all but himself, but he cared little about revealing them as he stood in the air with his body surging with the true essence of darkness. He was actually unaware of what his efforts would lead to, but since the end result would net him what he wanted nothing else mattered.

The heroes who fought valiantly against him, from the famed Mario Bros. to the esteemed Commander of the M.S.I. Alpha, the queen of the cosmos Rosalina and the former Overlord's best trained warriors the Genesis Samurais had either fallen or died in battle. The boy Alex Whiter was without his subconscious, shattered from an illusion cast by Joe Dark. He laid on the roof of the temple without hope, without feeling, without anything but his blanked eyes and the spirits that rest inside his body that are working to put together the broken parts of his broken subconscious.

There was only one group of beings who were working to fix what is Plit's darkest hour. The venerable Star Spirits, seven celestial entities who exist far above the world in the confines of their sanctuary, forever guarding the most sacred object the Star Rod, which binds the hopes and dreams of the world together into energy for its preservation. At the moment, with the help of their herald who goes by the earthly name of Geno because of the doll he once inhabited, they have pled to the panicked citizens down below to share their dreams so they can power-up the Star Rod and use its energies to revitalize the Elemental Overlord before their planet is destroyed.

With this short recap of events, we have reached the point where time has diverged. In this branch of the continuum there was quite a fewer amount of people convinced that this unknown child could be their savior, and even more that believed that even if he succeeded he would eventually lead to their destruction due to the immaturity that came with his age. As such, the Star Spirits had an insufficient amount of energy gathered in the Star Rod, and as the twinkling lights that represented the wishes of the populace started to fade Eldstar closed his eyelids in disappointment as he releases a scoff past his bushy mustache.

"We failed…You tried your hardest my son, but the populace has no faith in someone they know nothing about." He says, subjecting himself to despair as his voice drips with regret. The pinkish star with the orange ribbon named Misstar turns to her elderly compatriot and says in a tone that has a bit of hope residing in it, "Still, our efforts were not in vain. With the energy we have acquired we will be able to carry everyone except the Dark King and the Elemental Overlord off this planet, migrating them to a new, inhabitable one while the two of them perish in the ensuing explosion."

"Is this truly the right thing to do though?" The pale-purple star with the glasses named Skolar says with an eyebrow raised in suspicion. "We have already earned enough of the higher-ups' ire for going this far in our interference, ending the cycle of the two deities they created to keep the balance of light and darkness intact would certainly end in our demise." "I don't care what they think!" Eldstar bluntly replies. "Losing two people, no matter their importance, is worth it to keep billions alive. After all, who is to say that the Dark King's rampage will end with Plit? We have witnessed once the boy being possessed by his vengeful spirit, and it is only a matter of time before it could happen again."

After giving his reasoning the Star Spirits start to debate over their next course of action while they still have time to do so, while Geno stays away from their attention and wracks his spiritual mind in hopes of coming up with something, ANYTHING that could still be used to save all of his comrades and slay the Dark King. He reaches into the deepest recesses of his memories, struggling to draw something up as the noises around him are slowly silenced. Then he recalls when he attacked Joe Dark before with his Geno Beam, and how his body was gravely injured from the strike in spite of it being non-lethal to other creatures and humans.

"Wait a second!" Geno suddenly breaks his concentration and blurts out to grab the Star Spirit's attention. The seven celestial beings freeze in place and turns their bodies to hear their herald out. "What is it Geno?" Eldstar asks. Floating his body over to the center altar, Geno speaks to the others and says, "Isn't our star energy considered a weakness to beings of darkness?" He asked his suspicions as a question so he can get some confirmation, and as the seven beings float with their eyes widened in shock they exchange looks with each other, as if this thought never once popped into their heads.

"…How foolish were we to forget such a crucial, deciding factor?" Skolar notes with his glasses nudged upward. "Egregiously so, my dear friend…" Eldstar replies as he closes his eyelids and continues to hear Geno out. "Alright, so my theory has been proven true. Then here is what we need to do." With a curving of his body through the air he moves above the Star Rod. "We need to unload all of the Star Rod's energy into a concentrated beam aimed directly at the Dark King. That'll destroy him for good, right?" "It should….Yes, I actually have full faith that your plan should work." Eldstar says, his hopes for an absolute resolution returning to him thanks to Geno's confidently spoken idea. "Then we need to act quickly. I can feel the darkness of the boy's presence growing ever stronger…"

Back at the temple, Joe Dark slips his tongue through his lips and swirls them around blissfully. The time of his foe's destruction was almost at hand, and the tantalizing sensation passing through his mind got him feeling aroused by the mere delight he found in these thoughts. "My victory will be at hand…At least they will be avenged…" The cube starts pulsating like an overloaded star, the waves of energy lashing against the sphere the Dark King is trapped in waiting to be freed. "Yes…Now is the time." With the sphere dispelled with a thought, Joe Dark starts to pull the cube up above his head, streams of energy magnetizing the condensed form to the tips of his fingers as it spins around and changes shape into that of miniature vortex.

As the rotation picks up and draws in more darkness to increases its own size, the energy expands downward and wraps itself around Joe Dark's arm, the excess being released as bolts of lightning that smite random parts of the temple and the ground below, incinerating through everything without effort. Finally the energy hardens into a protective, demonic looking shell, but this is only a temporary effect since the time for the attack's unleashing is dawning ever closer. "Farewell Whiter…" Joe Dark says with his head held back and a deep breath going through his frenzied grin. "It was fun while it lasted." With his eyes widening in overzealous glee, the Dark King is ready to end the struggle once and for all.

But as he finished readying his arm, he feels something coming his way. The sudden shiver buried into his spine causes him to jerk his head up after a brief pause. He widens his eyes in absolute disbelief as a concentrate beam of raw starlight comes hurtling downward in the form of an ever intertwining spiral at a speed that the Dark King quickly realized he would be incapable of getting out of the way of. As the pure white light burned their image into his pupils, he scowls in a frightened manner and widens his eyes, raising his blackened arm up towards it to attack it with the beam meant to crush his true target.

However, it was far too late for him to counter what was coming at him. The energy melded together into a pillar-like form only a couple inches away from Joe Dark and the ensuing dispersion of starlight completely engulfs him. Inside the light of the beam the Dark King could feel his very essence being torn apart bit by bit by the energy, and his regenerative abilities struggled to keep up with the damage being caused. His right arm was burned right off in a blaze of bright yellow flames thanks to the amount of darkness he had gathered, while every other part of his skin peeled off into flakes and turned into nothingness as they descended away from his body.

As he held his left arm out while it lasted, he tried to draw forth his sword, but the moment he went to swing it it was immediately destroyed, shattering into fragments that burn off before his fearstruck eyes. His victory was so close that it angered him to the core that he was suddenly going to be robbed of the sweet splendor of his success. But he wasn't going to let it end like this. Even as his limbs fade away he keeps gritting his teeth and using all of his might and focus in order to bear through everything the heavens were sending his way. So long as Whiter remained unconscious, he would be able to kill him even he had to use his teeth to get the job done.

As the burning sensation incapacitates his nervous system, the left side of the Dark King's face starts to melt away. First the skin turns into a liquid-like substance, oozing off to the side and revealing the flesh and bone underneath one piece at a time. As the skin begins to boil and the vision in his eye becomes distorted thanks to the boiling of the eyeball, he hears a deep, dreadful voice calling out to him from within the sanctity of his mind, _"It seems you have failed, such a shame, but that's what you get for your arrogance…"_ It was the spirit of the original Dark King, who appeared as a pure black phantom behind him with his vacant, blood red smile brimming out of his vessel's sight.

Joe Dark was puzzled. He had sealed the Dark King's influence away so he could regain control of his own body, but now he emerged and spoke to him without any concern. _"How dare you speak to me you shadow of the past!" _The boy thinks out loud to the black spirit, who chuckles maniacally in a subdued fashion. _"You are in no position to bark child. You are dying, and with the fragment of my power you currently wield you will never leave to fulfill your goal." "Bastard…How did you even break free of my hold?" "Foolish child…All it took was for you to break your concentration, and I have returned to claim what is rightfully mine!" "No! I refuse to let a shadow like you attempt to accomplish what you already failed to do before…You are going to burn in Hell with my death like the demon you are!" "You…Aren't allowed to make that decision, boy." _As the demonic voice echoes through the slowly decaying mind of Joe Dark, the spirit sinks back into what remains of the body and makes quick work of the fragments of the boy's own soul by devouring it in one bite. With his possession now absolute, the remaining eye of the body becomes pitch black, darkness pouring out of it as the lips curl into a fanged smirk.

From outside the luminous pillar, the essence of darkness begins to seep out through all sides. As the ominous winds are sucked through the cracks made by the being inside, the ground far below rumbles madly in fear. Lightning cracks down from the skies, thunder erupting out as loud as fireworks as the striking bolts rupture the trees and surface of the planet below the clouds. As the star energy continues to pour down the pillar starts to widen, wrapping around the rim of a spherical object and splitting apart into smaller sections until a grim, black and purple bubble of pure darkness is visible behind them. The fog-like shadows are scattered about the perimeter, hiding the figure of the Dark King behind's its menacing layer.

All that can truly be seen is the eerie pale red glow surrounding the blade of his sword, and with a quick yet mighty swing the barrier around the Dark King shatters without question. With this blow darkness is unleashed all about, pushing away the remaining star energy and leaving him without anymore harm. With his possessed body now returned to its true splendor, the ruler of darkness snaps his left fingers callously and condenses the darkness in the air around his head. He tries to form the helmet he once wielded, but finds that doing so is a task he cannot accomplish at the time being. So for now he chooses to accept the ghastly form of his facial protection and peers through the rims surrounding his eyes with a blood-red glow seeping from the pupils. As the curved horns atop the helmet sway back and forth, the Dark King stares down at his current target.

He cared not for the destruction he was causing to the planet just by existence. All the instability and fear mattered little to a man dead-set on one goal. He stared at the unconscious body of the new Elemental Overlord, laughing lightly at his weakness as he quickly teleports over to his location and dispels his sword. Having witnessed things from within, he already knew that the boy's sub-consciousness was destroyed, and at that level there was no mortal way for him to recover. He was completely at his mercy, and though he wanted to destroy him with as much force as he could muster, the Dark King didn't want to take the risk of another outside source interfering with his own long sought out vengeance.

Kneeling down and picking the boy up by the collar of his shirt, the figure raises him up with his right hand and a menacing smirk peering through his darkness shrouded face. With the young Alex Whiter limping about like a rag-doll, the Dark King brought the child in closer to him and let go, sprawling his fingers out so his mystical powers can keep the effects of gravity away from him as he continues to draw him in range. When the time finally came for his moment of glory, the Dark King quickly thrusts his right arm back out, wrapping his fingers as tightly around the neck of the young Overlord as he possibly could. He wasted no time in using all of his strength to squeeze the boy's neck, redness filling up in his lifeless face as blood rushes up through the veins in the neck.

In an act of heartless slaughter, the Dark King successfully causes Alex's head to burst, the rain of blood, flesh and bone splattering all across the ground that surrounds the two figures. As more blood gushes out through the hole in the neck as streams, the monarch of darkness widens his eyes in ecstasy and with a poke of his tongue through the lips he tastes the gory reward of his victory that had plastered itself onto his face. With one last smirk he lets go of the boy's corpse, which tries to reach the ground only for it to be completely disintegrated by a casual cone-shaped blast of violet, dark energy emerging from the Dark King's left palm.

The ground in front of him is also destroyed in the ensuing blast, but besides that no other harm has been done to the structure. With his target now eliminated the menacing man of black waits for the dust of his attack to settle before he looks out at the other unconscious bodies lying around him. He had all the time in the world to pick them off one by one, but in this particular moment his gaze is fixated onto the body of a middle-aged, portly man in a gold shirt and white overalls. It was the famous hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, who had managed to retain his consciousness and witnessed in horror all the events that unfolded before him with his eyes widened in stunned disbelief.

His mouth was quivering while open, his pupils having shrunk to the size of pinholes from the utter fear that had gripped his mind. Even if he had only known the boy for a week, he was saddened immensely by his cruel fate, along with the creeping realization that everyone on the planet would suffer the same fate as him in due time. But through this revelation Mario regains his composure, his determined expression returning as he weakly attempts to lift his body up off the ground. With his back still hurting from the earlier confrontation with Joe Dark, the effort takes him approximately fifteen seconds before he is leaned over but still on both of his feet. He holds his right hand out, staring defiantly at the surprised Dark King as he cares little about how outclassed he is against this foe.

"I must commend you for your steadfast iron will, plumber. But why do you even bother? I am a deity, and in comparison to me your planet is but an ant, and in furthering that comparison you are but a gnat to it. By raising your body, you have simply asked for a more suffering demise." The malicious being says to the hero, his left hand extended arrogantly as his eyes brim with some respect for his foe. Mario cocks one eyebrow upward and turns his head to glare at the Dark King with one eye, his next sentence having already been thought up without hesitation. "You just can't expect me to be subservient after you slaughtered one of my friends." He says in calm defiance.

"Really now? You are so willing to call that weak child a friend when you only knew him for but a week? If there was one thing my host body had a point on, is that you and your allies were far too protective of the boy, fostering him without a single thought as to the follies he may have committed." The Dark King withdraws his hands to the side of his body, calling back his sword into his right one before glaring at the plumber with his flaring eyes. "And what would you know about him? Nothing, that's what, because the only way for you to learn about others is to feed off of their emotions and memories. You are a monster who has lost all sense of empathy, and you wish to completely disregard the consequences of your actions to continue your senseless destruction of all around you."

With Mario's brutal yet subdued rebuttal, the Dark King actually flinches in surprise over the fact that his attempt to break the mortal defying him had failed. "Like your baseless accusations mean anything to me. I have broken the young Overlord that you had sought to protect, so your purpose in this world is now over with, and your last stand is just a prelude to the carnage that I shall scatter across the universe." With his echoing declaration, the lord of darkness brandishes his sword out slowly and waits for the plumber to show fear, but is once again surprised and agitated by the fact that the man still glares at him in a manner that was disturbingly similar to the glare Alex Whiter had given his spiritual body not long ago.

"You…No matter how many times he dies, no matter how many times my eyes divert from his figure, that disapproving glare of his is always looking straight at me, making me feel like a child deprived of his emotions and bravery…" The Dark King starts muttering angrily to himself, words spoken that are interpreted as incoherent gibberish by Mario as he prepares to fight against the point he had previously brought to his attention. "Alex's existence was never the only thing driving me, and even with his death my desire to avenge him isn't the only motivation I have to continue onward with. I could go on for hours, citing every last reason as to why I'm defying you despite the differences between our power, but you wouldn't listen to a single one of them. So now, I'm going to let my fists do the talking, and the one blow I will attempt to strike you with will say enough for everyone on this planet!"

With nothing else left to say Mario charges forth, his footsteps being presented through the eyes of the Dark King as a slow, almost snail-like approach. As a being of a higher order, he perceived the speed and strength of his enemies quite differently from all others below him, and without much of a care the malicious being of darkness raised his sword above his head, the glowing afterimages of his blade existing for only a second in the eyes of his foe as he prepares to swing it down to execute him in one fell swoop.

But as Mario got closer, his body started to move faster through the eyes of the Dark King, as he starts to see an aura of golden fire slowly flare up around him, most of it concentrating around his held back right fist as a magnificent glow starts to reach his eyes. At first the Dark King makes nothing of this, but as he swings his sword out in an arc to cleave the plumber he is taken aback when his left hand thrusts out and blocks the slash with only his palm. This effort is then followed up by Mario laying his hand against the dull side of the blade and using it to vault himself slightly into the air, at which point he is not far above the Dark King's face. Without hesitation, Mario swings his tightly clenched fist out with all of his renewed strength and strikes a mighty blow right into the side of the lord of darkness' head.

With his fist planted firmly into the skin, the plumber finds himself suspended in mid-air as the Dark King is forcibly spun around three times as his body is flipped around and launched through the roof, tearing up chunks of the ceiling before he slams straight into the side of the wall on the other side of the temple. The ensuing cloud of dust that rises is visible from the edge of the roof, and Mario lands on the ground with one fist planted on the floor as his other hand is held out beside his leaning body. Golden fire is radiating around his body like an aura, and the plumber feels a tingling sensation of rising anticipation coursing through his skin and spinal cord.

The Dark King quickly recovers from the blow dealt to him, unleashing the full power of his aura to obliterate the area surrounding him within a 100-foot radius. The spherical projection of his darkness pulsates for ten seconds before it collapses back into the owner, who floats past the descending wreckage and moves back towards his opponent, hovering in the air with the right side of his face burned off from the blow. However, his regenerative powers allow him to heal the damage without effort, and as he tightly clenches his fists as they are held out beside his body he begins to increase the pressure surrounding his very form.

Rocks are pulled up from all around and gravitate towards him, disintegrating upon making contact with his overwhelming aura. Environmental damage isn't the Dark King's intention though, for he was hoping to drag in the unconscious bodies and corpses lying around him, only for none of them to budge even an inch, much to his chagrin. "How can this be? You are but a mortal, you should not be able to lay even a finger on my face. The laws of the universe were not designed to work in such ways, unless…No, it can't be." As the malicious being begins to raise his voice out of contempt for Mario's successful strike, he begins to think about all possibilities, and the most likely one forces him to give pause and widen his eyes, looking down at the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom as something begins to emerge from his back.

From the splitting spread of golden fire materializes the shape of a pair of wings, which appear one feather at a time at a rapid pace until they have been summoned in their full glory. As they flap slowly, they extend out to their maximum length, which prove in total to be twice as wide as the plumber's height. The bright red-orange glow of the feathers is similar to the light radiating from the surface of the sun, and the vibrant pattern of colors transmits to Mario's clothing, changing the yellow fabric while leaving the white intact. The flames that remain from the wings flow down to the plumber's neck, wrapping around until a scarf with a solar-like design is solidified and set close to the skin. The tail end of the cloth flaps without restraint, the torn up edge having no physical form, instead choosing to flail about like a newly lit flame.

As Mario raises his body, he begins to float up off the ground, his hands resting precariously in the air as he rises above the Dark King and tilts his head downward to stare at him with his glowing, amber eyes. Though his appearance had changed greatly, he was still the same pure-hearted hero of the Mushroom Kingdom through and through, but he was now being assisted by another force that the malicious being of darkness had assumed he had finally extinguished. In his glowing, ethereal form appeared the Elemental Overlord behind Mario, his non-existent eyes glaring at the desolate gaze of his counterpart with a feeling of contempt that he has felt many times before.

"How are you still alive? You should've been banished to oblivion after I destroyed your host, and yet here you are, impeding me through the body of another! You are defying your agreement with the higher-ups Overlord, you are overstepping your bounds in a way that will bring this very planet down no matter who wins this battle!" As the Dark King lashes out verbally at the spirit floating behind his opponent, the Overlord and Mario keep their cool, the bright orb pulsating with holy energy as the being prepares a response. "You have already broken the natural order of things by interfering where you are no longer needed. The boy was intended to live far longer than this day, and now that the streams of fate have diverted in a new direction you have given me no choice but to end you."

"You would end me?" The Dark King bursts into jolly laughter, which is rather disturbing when mixed in with his grim yet deep tone of voice. Once he has stopped he looks back up at the Overlord and says to him with his left arm held out, "Then you are no better than I am if you are going to use the body of your new successor to accomplish your task." Though he brought a good point up, Mario is the one who quickly replies to it by saying, "The Overlord isn't going to take over my body. You started this fight with me, and I'm going to be the one to end it." With his confident demeanor staying firm in the face of his opponent's demonic gaze, Mario clenches his fists tightly and ignites them both with piercing, golden flames.

But as the plumber floated in mid-air, he recalled the message the Elemental Overlord had delivered to him as he had become one with his body. _"I'm sorry for the sudden intrusion Mario, but the circumstances have changed far beyond my control, leaving this as my only solution. I have brought the souls of the Genesis Samurais here with me, along with the souls of the Inner Guardians to increase your power to a point that you should be able to match the Dark King and kill him. I know the time was brief, but Alex did leave one message for you and the others before his soul departed to the afterlife…"_

Turning his head to the side so the Dark King cannot see the tear trickling from his left eye, Mario holds his arms out in raring to go into battle as the remainder of the message echoes within his head, _"'I want to thank you immensely for everything you had done for me…I wanted so badly to prove that I could handle myself, protect you all as repayment for the times you defended me, but it seems as though I have proven myself to be unworthy of the mantle of the Elemental Overlord…Mario, you are more than deserving of having his powers, for you have always been its protector, and people will always trust you to not mis-use the powers you have been granted…Honestly, it is for the best that things have turned out this way…Cause I always was a boy that was unimportant to anyone's life but my own…" _

"Darn it Alex…" Mario mumbles to himself, regretting the fact that he didn't recognize the boy's insecurity issues before he had perished and in turn lamenting that now he would never see him again. But with all of this anger stemming from his regret, he knew exactly who to unleash it all out on. Before he charged forward, the Elemental Overlord said one last thing to his new successor. _"Now hear me out…You need to take out the Dark King as quickly as possible, but to do that you'll have to strike him with an attack that overwhelms his regenerative factor. Fight him for now while I explain what you must do…"_

The plumber charges forward, swiftly striking the befuddled Dark King with three punches to the chest, his arms gliding through the air in separate arcs that leave trails of golden flames. As the lord of darkness takes these blows thanks to his armor, he hears a sizzling noise coming from his chest and looks down to notice that holes have burned through his defenses thanks to a combination of the fire and starlight surrounding the plumber's fists. As he recovers and swings his sword out in retaliation, Mario uses his newfound speed to duck the blade and glide behind his opponent, preparing a fireball in his right hand as the Dark King quickly spins around to counterattack.

With his blade coming down like a guillotine, Mario is forced to screech to a half as it then passes harmlessly in front of his body. But as he continues to slow down he shifts his body to the side and increases his speed to move past the sword, flinging the fireball to his other hand and slamming it straight into the blade as he passes by it. The sudden thrust of golden fire collides with the darkened steel, swiftly breaking the blade in two with a loud crash as the pointed tip falls to the ground and becomes ignited by the flames left behind in Mario's wake. As the Dark King tries to restore what has been lost, he finds that the fire renders the process incapable of being performed, and the rest of his sword vanishes into oblivion only seconds later.

With his hands having nothing left to grasp, the Dark King spreads his fingers apart and quivers in subdued rage for a few seconds, gritting his teeth into an angered, fanged snarl as he tightly clenches his fists after the loss of his valued weapon. With Mario charging right at him with both of his fists held against the front of his wings, the lord of darkness wastes no time in stomping the ground violently with his right foot, causing pure black energy to erupt from below along with cracking the roof within a fifteen foot radius. While the rocks disintegrate from the Dark King's might, Mario accidentally charges into the darkness summoned before him and finds himself without vision even with the intensity of his glow.

Suddenly, without any warning, the plumber can feel his body being slammed straight in the gut, and he is quickly thrust from the darkness by the Dark King, whose shoulder is planted in his body as he charges through the air with the plumber currently wincing in pain. What follows is a vicious onslaught as midway through his flight the Dark King pulls his right arm back, the darkness behind him dragging swiftly into his fist and swirling around until it is unleashed right into Mario's face with a powerful right hook. The ensuing shockwave that is left behind in the air ruptures the ground below, a sound similar to a sonic boom resounding through the sky as the next punch is thrown out.

This one speeds up the plumber so he is then put a foot away from the Dark King. However, he is not out of his mercy, seeing as since he is still within arms' reach the lord of darkness is able to swing his arms out rapidly to bombard him with punches, each one strong enough to crack the ground below their bodies. Eventually a trail of destruction is left on the roof, and after grabbing Mario by the collar of his shirt the Dark King drags him close to his body and thrusts his fist out one more time after drawing in as much darkness as he can physically muster, the sheer force put into that blow creating a massive, orb-shaped release of dark energy that in turn thrusts the broken rocks into the air behind him, all of them suspended in place until gravity takes hold and drags them into the temple, where their quiet collisions with the floor are heard by none.

But with the Dark King's final blow Mario is able to recover thanks to the time the enraged being now has to spend recuperating from his own assault. As the plumber's body floats above the edge of the temple in front of the fading orb of darkness, he rubs the bottom of his chin with the top of his right glove, proceeding to nod his head afterwards and saying to the spirit of the original Overlord, "Alright…I got all that. Sorry for taking a few beatings, but I wanted to make sure that I was able to hear you out clearly." After Mario offers and apology the fallen deity, he quickly responds with, _"That's quite alright…Though in all honesty, destroying the Dark King's momento wasn't exactly the wisest move. Of course, not like I expected you to know such a fact…" _

As the spirit consigns to his minor folly, Mario pulls his right fist back and in a flash of light the golden flames are replaced with neon, rainbow-coated ones, which crawl up his arms and spread out until they are one-inch thick. Mario clenches the fingers against his palm tightly, landing on the ground and pulling his entire body back as he gives himself a moment to line up his next move. In the time it takes for him to plan things out the Dark King is able to gaze through the thinned darkness and sees the flames crackling in wait to strike him down. He recognizes them instantly, since they had once before been used to purge his spirit from his immortal body. They were mainly used by the original Overlord to threaten demons and other extra dimensional beings that simply refused to back down through any other methods, but now his new successor bore them on his arm, poised to kill him the moment they connect.

"This is how far you are willing to go Overlord? To annihilate me with the flames collected from the souls of God's apostles? Oh but wait…It is of no consequence to you as to what destroys me, because you aren't the one in control here, the hero of this planet is. Very well then…" The Dark King raises his body's right arm high above his face, bending his elbow so when he snaps his fingers they are resting above his scalp. In an instant his arm is shrouded with condensed darkness in a fashion similar to what Joe Dark's was like when he attempted his final attack. "Unlike the boy, I can summon up my strongest attack as if it was nothing…" He says in arrogance as he lowers his arms slightly so the glow of darkness adds a more menacing flare to the grin currently on his face.

"Now then…Let us see how your flames stand up to the power of the Seven Deadly Sins!" Though the bellowing of the Dark King's confident bravado is heard by Mario, the plumber is completely unaware of what the lord of darkness is planning to do. As the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom charges forth with his Phoenix wings folded inward to increase his velocity, the Dark King shifts his eyes to the right so he can gaze at the unconscious bodies of Mario's comrades. With a swift, callous lowering of the hand, the lord of darkness fires out all the energy in the form of a nightmarish torrent, the grueling screams of the undead echoing within its darkened confines as it tears up the ground while closing in to his targets.

If the attack connected without an equal or stronger force to stop it, it wouldn't just be Mario's friends that would be destroyed, but the rest of the planet as well. With great urgency felt from the fearful widening of his eyes, the plumber shifts his direction and lays his body only an inch above the ground, speeding towards the end of the beam and passing it within a couple of seconds. Once he is in front of the attack he slams the heels of his shoes against the ground to force himself to stop and he turns himself around, wasting no time in slamming his empowered fist into the brunt of the beam.

The rainbow flames burn right through every square inch of darkness almost instantaneously, the roar of a Phoenix being heard as they are fully consumed and erased from the air. In the aftermath of the attack Mario holds his still burning hand in front of his body and keeps his feet firmly placed on the ground. He is sweating, a result of pushing himself to pass the Dark King's ultimate technique before it struck, but he doesn't release a heavy breath of air from his mouth even though he has every reason to do so during this moment of relief. But once the time has passed, the Dark King prepares his arm to fire another beam, the effort proving to not be taxing on him in the slightest as he adjusts his aim to the left side of Mario's body.

Another torrent is fired off, and Mario quickly rushes towards it and smashes the back of his flaming hand against the front of the darkness onslaught to destroy it. It was clear what the Dark King was doing. With the frequency at which he was firing off those attacks, he would keep the plumber away from him while at the same time forcing him to run out of energy from the constant use of the spiritual flames. As he punched away attack after attack, Mario tried to come up with a solution to this conundrum before it was too late, only to harshly realize that there is nothing in his arsenal that can take down the Dark King while at the same time dealing with his attack. The silence of the Elemental Overlord's spirit didn't do anything to help matters either.

All the while the Dark King stood in the same place, firing his attacks off with an arrogant smile on his face as he felts his victory come closer. With the annihilation of the planet, there would be no host bodies for his counterpart to inhabit and thus transfer the elemental powers over to, and in time the "higher-ups" would deal with his spirit, leaving him free to destroy all as he pleased. But as he indulged in his glorious fantasies, something called out to him, a voice that he had thought he had already extinguished. _"Hey Dark King! Why don't you stop beam spamming and fight like a gentleman?" _

It was Alex Whiter, and though the echoes of his voice sounded off the Dark King still reacted to his taunt in surprise. Though his arm was still covered in black energy, he lowered it and shifted his head around, scanning the skies for any signs of the previous Overlord's spiritual body. But in the time he wastes looking for someone of no significance to him simply because of what they said, Mario recovers from destroying his last week and flares his right arm back up, clenching it into a fist and charging towards the Dark King while his guard is down. By the time the lord of darkness realizes that he might be hearing things, he turns his head around only for his head to lunge forward in pain as the plumber strikes through the gut portion of his armor with all of his strength.

With the shattered metal melting against his glove, Mario keeps pressing his knuckles until they are against the skin, the flames puncturing through and beginning to burn through the Dark King's entire being one piece of flesh at a time. As he begins to die he wonders once more what he could've heard, and after raising his right hand into the air as it gets ignited by the rainbow flames he hears another voice call out to him. _"For the lord of darkness, you sure are a gullible buffoon…" _

The true owner of this body had returned, his spirit residing in the depths of the Dark King's blackened heart in wait for the proper moment.

"Impossible…How could you…" _"Hmm…How did it go before? I think what you said before was 'All it took was for you to break you concentration'. You made the foolish mistake of relishing in arrogance, and I emerged long enough to do a rather accurate impersonation of Whiter's voice to throw you off guard so Mario could finish you off." _As Joe Dark makes a mockery out of the bewildered Dark King, the lord of darkness flails his head about to lock-on to the source of the voice, confusing Mario as he lifts his head up to wait for his opponent's demise. The flames had consumed half of the being's body, and as he snarls in pain he says to the boy's spirit, "Why did you even bother…I already killed the boy you were after, I did your job for you…You should be grateful you little brat!"

"_Yes…You see, that's the thing. YOU did it, not me. Sure, you may have used my body to accomplish the task, but it was not through my mental commands that my arms did move. You robbed me of the satisfaction I long deserved, so now I'm going to return the favor and rob you of your chance at revenge against the Elemental Overlord, you pitiful shadow!" _"How dare you!" The Dark King blurts out, enraged to the point that anymore would cause him to crack from sheer insanity. _"Look…We may both be crazy, but that doesn't mean I haven't retained some standards as a mortal. I've peered into your soul just as you did mine, and after examining your reasons for wanting to eliminate your counterpart, I must admit that it just makes you look a HELL of a lot more pathetic…Not that that is really hard for you at this point."_

As the Dark King looks behind himself with frenzied eyes, the flames have crawled up to his neck. All he can imagine at this point is that Joe Dark's spirit is floating in the air with his arms folded in front of his chest and his head rearing back in maniacal laughter. _"You want to kill him out of jealousy for what he has and had, while I want to serve righteous justice to the one who prevented my family's murderer from being found and executed, and I was perfectly fine with succumbing to insanity and rage for a while until my goal was accomplished…"_ "Impossible…Once you became the Dark King, you would've had to fulfill your role in the universe, killing others, spreading chaos, that was all part of the pact you chose to make by bonding with my spirit!"

"_Oh? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I refuse to become a wretched example of a rage induced abomination like you did in your last days. Your death is almost here, so now we shall both be dragged to Hell for our sins, whether you like it or not!" _With his last sentence, the Dark King realized that what he said was true. As he turns the remains of his head towards the Overlord's successor, he sees his glowing spirit once again glaring at him in contempt without saying a single word at him. As he squints his eyelids with a mixture of sadness and rage welling up inside him in his final moments, he mutters out, "Si-" only for him to be cut off with his true demise.

It was a swift battle, but for Mario it felt as though he had been in combat for an eternity. As he stood by himself with his fist extended into nothingness, he gazes up at the remnants of the rainbow flames and lets out a sigh of relief as he pulls his arm back and collapses onto his knees, planting his hands against the ground as the flames die down without a trace. The Overlord's spirit calls out to him, his tone expressing confusion _"Curious…The flames haven't tried to take over…" _To which Mario replies with a tired sounding "What?" as he turns his head to look at the glowing spirit floating behind him.

"_Since what I'm referring to will not happen, it is nothing you need to concern yourself with…For now, tend to your allies…"_ As the Overlord's spirit retreats into Mario's body, the plumber reverts to his Star Spirit empowered appearance, and then turns back to his familiar red and blue garb. After that, he turns towards the unconscious bodies of his comrades. He had beaten the Dark King, the one responsible for control over the darkness side of balance in the universe, but at the cost of Alex and the Genesis Samurai's lives. As he walked towards his brother, Mario held one fist close to his heart and with a hopeful prayer to those fallen people he continued on his way.

However, as Mario started to relax over his victory, events were transpiring in Star Haven. The Star Spirits and Geno, having instigated the events that led to a massive shift in the space time continuum, have been forced into a council with the "higher-ups", where they've had to listen to their crimes being listed off along with reasons as to why their decisions were as bad as they were for the last five minutes. After everything was all said and done, the Star Spirits are left wide-eyed in shock as the "higher-ups" end their sentence with the most unexpected outcome, _"For the defiance of God's will by initiating the shift that brought the Dark King of this timeline to his death, your planet shall be completely erased from existence."_

The judgment was giving with stoicism in the being's voice, which is a great contrast from the outrage that Eldstar expresses to those speaking to him from above. "Preposterous! What gives you the right to eliminate this world? Are you telling me that the right move would've been to let the Dark King live as he pleased?" _"No. The Dark King was supposed to have perished, but not in the way that it occurred in this timeline. The boy, Alex Whiter, was intended to live through these events, and he was to slay his foe. Had you chosen to have faith in the star energy you had gathered, things would've turned out alright had you directed it at the young Overlord. But you were arrogant, believing you could kill a being whose importance was far greater than you could ever hope to comprehend…"_

"Silence your tongue higher-ups! How dare you even consider condemning a planet full of innocent people just because of our mista-" As Eldstar lashes out at the beings in absolute defiance, he along with the rest of the Star Spirits are thrust against the walls against their will, their bodies covered with a strange material as Geno's formless body is quickly sent into oblivion. _"Your resistance matters not…A unanimous verdict was reached far before you even spoke with us. In the end though, you are all expendable as we seek out the true timeline of the universe. But don't worry, we won't be wiping out everyone…We have our own plans for the Mario of this parallel existence…Now then, it is time for you to never exist again…"_

"_**And so the higher-ups made good on their decision, erasing the entirety of Plit and its inhabitants without any effort on their part. There were no warnings, no debris, nothing but the empty void of space and the sparkles of the faraway stars. It was like there was never any Plit to begin with, the outcomes of Mario and friend's adventures eventually becoming nothing more than a distant memory to the rest of this universe as the years passed by without care. **_

_**As for Mario himself, his memories, his consciousness, everything that made him who he was was erased by the higher-ups. And after making certain to lock away the Elemental Overlord's spirit's ability to interfere with the events of mortals and immortals, they forced Mario into his Phoenix form and sealed him away in a sun-like sphere in the center of where Plit once existed, freeing him only when an influx of darkness came that needed to be counteracted to restore balance.**_

_**Even though he was a puppet driven only by a desire of which he knew naught the origin of, as he slept in wait "Mario" was constantly plagued by what he assumed to be dreams. He remembered a man in green who looked similar to him, an angry, gigantic spike-shelled Koopa, and every time he saw the smiling face of a pink-dress wearing lass a tear trickled out of his eyes. But he was made immortal, and from then on until the heat death of this universe he would never again be reunited with those people that once greatly influenced his life…"**_

**What-If 1.1: The End…**


	59. Part 4 Announcement

Hello everyone. You may be wondering right now "Hey, why is Part 1 and Part 2 getting updates when they are listed off as complete?" Well, its because my recent story only has a 125 something views compared to the other ones having between 2000-6000 each. So I figured posting this on those would be better for alerting my viewers about the next Part.

Yes, that's right, no more What-Ifs, not more side-stories (For the time being anyways, but I'll get to that in a moment), its time for me to being work on Part 4! …About half a month later then what I was expecting, but at least League of Legends isn't the reason as to why I was so late on Recollections of a Former Goomba. So yes, if you have at least looked at Part 3 you know what was mentioned and thus what is happening with a certain character. Otherwise, the vagueness in that previous sentence is to the prevent massive spoilers for the end of Part 3.…Even though the next paragraph is going to sort of spoil what happened there. Oh well, this type of thing happens on occasion.

Anyways, Part 4 is going to be the longest part yet. The reason for that is simple…The next part is going to involve a lot of interplanetary travel between different video game worlds…And yes, that does sound like Kingdom Hearts but then again its not I'm trying to write interplanetary travel off as an entirely new concept, especially considering how much fiction has evolved over the years. Still, I know what I'm doing with this concept, though its up to you to decide that depending on how much you are familiar with the video game worlds. There will be familiar characters and locations, and a couple familiar plots as well…Yes, of course there will be a main character here that is one of my OC's, which honestly means I wouldn't blame you for automatically assuming that I've lost my mind and am about to go all "Mary Sue" with all of my characters and have them take control of the plots and make everyone act OoC at every possible moments. I'll be taking careful consideration into how I write the other video game characters, and considering how most of them have more defined personalities than Mario's guys it should feel more genuine…

So, what exactly is my plan for Part 4? Well, I can't spoil all the worlds that will appear, and I DEFINITELY can't spoil the Extra Chapters and other stories that will be happening between certain worlds…The other stories specifically will be posted on FictionPress because they will be composed with entirely ORIGINAL CONTENT. Yeah, I know, didn't think I had it in me either…So anyways, without further ado let me give you a basic idea of what's going down for Part 4:

_**(Timeline)**_

Prologue (Sonic the Hedgehog World, Battle with ?) Birth of ? Legend of Zelda World Metroid World Kirby World ? Sonic the Hedgehog World Tales of ? World ? World ? Final World

So yeah, got a lot of work ahead of me as far as writing goes. I feel like this MIGHT take the whole year to complete, and please don't quote me on this one considering how terrible I've been at fulfilling times in the past. Not to mention I'm going to try and do a thing for the Mario World in between certain chapters and/or worlds. It'll be a series of side-stories compiled together under one title "Tales of Plit: (Character Name Here)". Again, don't hold me to a time limit on this one, but I plan to get at least three chapters per main character (For Example: Driad, Mario, Luigi, Gemini, etc…) And perhaps a couple more characters will get some stories afterwards if its requested…But they have to be Mario characters, they have to be alive, and they have to have appeared in CotE beforehand. So no, I'm not writing a story about Bow fighting Bonetail to the death. So yeah, with no other announcements, there is only one thing left to say…

Pay close attention to the "Sonic the Hedgehog" part of this site for in a few days it will be time for…

**CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4: TRAVELS OF THE OVERLORD**


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